First study on the effect of transforming growth factor beta 1 and insulin-like growth factor 1 on the chondrogenesis of elephant articular chondrocytes in a scaffold-based 3D culture model

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Osteoarthritis (OA) is recognized as a degenerative joint disease that leads to chronic pain and low quality of life in animals. Captive elephants, the largest land mammals with a long lifespan, are more prone to develop OA due to restricted spaces and insufficient physical activity. This study aimed to investigate the effect of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) on elephant chondrogenesis in a scaffold culture of articular chondrocytes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Elephant chondrocytes-seeded gelatin scaffolds were cultured in chondrogenic media with or without 10 ng/mL of TGF-β1 or IGF-1 alone or 5–10 ng/mL of their combination for up to 21 days. The mRNA expression of cartilage-specific anabolic genes, ACAN and COL2A1, was analyzed using a real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The amounts of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (sGAGs) in conditioned media and contents in cultured scaffolds were determined through dimethylmethylene blue assay. Cell morphology, accumulation of proteoglycans, and details of the cultured scaffolds were determined using hematoxylin-eosin staining, safranin O staining, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. RESULTS: TGF-β1 alone significantly upregulated ACAN gene expression but not COL2A1, while IGF-1 alone did not enhance both ACAN and COL2A1 genes. The combination significantly upregulated both mRNA expression levels of ACAN and COL2A1 gene at day 14. The sGAGs accumulation and contents in the treatment groups, except IGF-1 tended to be higher than the controls, concomitantly with the production of the extracellular matrix, showed the formation of a cartilage-like tissue through histological and SEM analyses. CONCLUSION: Together, our results suggest that the single treatment of TGF-β1 has a selective effect on ACAN gene, while the combined growth factors seem to be an advantage on elephant chondrogenesis. This three-dimensional culture model is probably helpful for developing cartilage regeneration in vitro and is further applied in tissue engineering for OA treatment in vivo.