Calcified and mechanically debilitated three-dimensional hydrogel environment induces hypertrophic trend in chondrocytes

Currently, the main focus on tissue engineering strategies is to mimic the extracellular matrix of the related tissues. Many studies accomplished to build tissue scaffolds to act as the natural surroundings of the specific interest, which can be established to behave like either healthy or unhealthy tissues. The latter one of these conditions is a quite new approach and crucial for the design of three-dimensional in vitro disease models. This study investigates the potential of a composite scaffold consisting hydroxyapatite-integrated fluorenyl-9-methoxycarbonyl diphenylalanine hydrogels by focusing on the optimization of this hybrid scaffold for the development of an in vitro model of degenerative cartilage. Cell growth, chondrocyte proliferation, extracellular matrix production, hypertrophy marker monitoring, scaffold mechanical properties, and morphological analysis were evaluated. Fluorenyl-9-methoxycarbonyl diphenylalanine dipeptides were dissolved in null cell culture media and pH decreased sequenti...