15502-m-pleumeekers

Another way to - at least partially - mimic structural and functional characteristics of native tissue microenvironment is the generation of ECM-inspired scaffolds. Alginate, typically used as a cell-laden hydrogel, is used for all of our cell-culture studies since it supports cartilage tissue regeneration and homeostasis. However, it appears to have inferior mechanical properties compared to native cartilage. Therefore a novel bilayer bacterial-nanocellulose scaffold is introduced in chapter eight . These bacterial-nanocellulose scaffolds are seeded with an alginate-cell suspension and evaluated for their use in one-step cell-based cartilage repair. Finally, the last chapter of the thesis will provide an overview of the main results and discuss the requirements for cell-based cartilage repair for future treatment of cartilage defects in the head and neck area. In particular, recent advances and remaining questions will be debated. CHAPTER 1 22