Abstract
Tissue engineering technology provides a promising approach for cartilage repair, and in this strategy, scaffolds play a pivotal role in directing cartilage regeneration. Fish collagen (FC) is currently considered an alternative source of mammalian collagen (MC) for tissue engineering due to its excellent biocompatibility, suitable biodegradability, inert immunogenicity, rich sources, low price and lack of risk for the transmission of zoonosis. Here, we fabricated three types of electrospun nanofibrous membranes composed of FC and polycaprolactone (PCL) with three different FC/PCL ratios (9/1, 7/3, 5/5) and investigated the feasibility of using the membranes with chondrocytes in cartilage regeneration. Our results demonstrated that increases in the FC content were associated with improvements in biodegradability, absorption, and cell adhesion capacity, but weaker mechanical properties. In addition, all three nanofibrous membranes showed satisfactory biocompatibility as evidenced by supporting chondrocyte proliferation and cartilage formation in vitro. Furthermore, all three membranes seeded with chondrocytes formed mature cartilage-like tissue after 8 weeks of in vivo culture, but satisfactory homogeneous cartilage regeneration was only achieved with the F9P1 group. The current results demonstrated that the electrospun FC/PCL membrane is a promising scaffold for cartilage regeneration and that the F9P1 group might represent a relatively suitable ratio. The research models established in the current study provide detailed information for the regeneration of cartilage and other tissue based on electrospun FC/PCL membranes.