- Inducing the stable growth and settlement of stem cells in the cartilage with the approach of systems engineering

- Plans to make it contribute to the regeneration of other organs, not just cartilages

- Published in the world-famous《npj Regenerative Medicine》(IF=14.404) and selected and listed as "People Who Made Korea Shine" by the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC)

Professor Heungjae Jeon (Director of the Cell & Tissue Engineering Institute) of the CUK College of Medicine have established the foundation for knee cartilage regeneration by developing the hydrogel-basis stem cell cultivation platform.

Once the cartilage is damaged, it is hard to regenerate. Especially for the knee, where the bones constantly make friction and wear out the cartilage, it is easy to induce diseases such as arthritis. So far, only treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs, physical treatment, and artificial cartilage replacement have been suggested as treatment methods for knee cartilage disease.

The recent introduction of treatment of knee cartilage using stem cells made it possible to delay the artificial cartilage replacement treatment, the last option. However, it had its limits as a cell therapy product. Although the reproduction effect of stem cells is powerful, a problem with a low engraftment rate has been discovered that the treatment product bleeds out to other parts of the body when it is implanted in the diseased area of the knee.

Therefore, Professor Heungjae Jeon's team (Professor Jeon Heungjae from the CUK College of Medicine, Professor Daehyuk Yang from the Cell & Tissue Engineering Institute, and Doctor Miyeon Ha) tried an approach of systems engineering to the knee cartilage regeneration research.

Among various scaffolds, they produced hydrogel (MPEG-PCL) with which they can introduce and inject GROGER, the collagen-originated peptide, for better growth of stem cells. They also designed the medicine in which the stem cells, as temperature-sensitive biomaterials, instantly turn into gel when they are injected into the diseased area after being stirred as an aqueous solution state, for the tight settlement of stem cells to the defect part of the cartilage, which can maximize its efficiency by reducing the loss of stem cells to be implanted.

Through vitro experiments, there has been a significant increase in the changes in the genes related to the attachment, proliferation, and differentiation of the stem cells in the hydrogel. And as a result of tracking the stem cells using GFP in animal experiments, the stem cells showed survival capacity for a long period of time, longer than 4 weeks. Also, they histologically and imagingly demonstrated that the implanted stem cells can directly function as cartilage cells in the defect area and improve the regeneration power of bone cartilage.

Professor Heungjae Jeon, the research director, said, "This biomaterial developed by using stem cells can be easily mixed with growth factors or immune-related factors, so we expect it will also be beneficial to the regeneration medical sector. As the Cell & Tissue Engineering Institute conducts research through various approaches with different perspectives that can be applied to medical fields practically, by converging multiple studies, we plan to make it beneficial not only to the treatment of knee cartilage disease patients but also to regeneration of other organs using stem cells." With the title of ‘In-situ forming injectable GFOGER-conjugated BMSCs-laden hydrogels for osteochondral regeneration’, this research was published in the world-class journal of the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine fields, the sister journal of Nature, 《npj Regenerative Medicine》(IF:14.404), and selected and listed as "People Who Made Korea Shine" by the Biological Research Information Center(BRIC) recently.

Meanwhile, this research was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy’s Strategic Core Material Technology Project (development of biodegradable polyester material used for medical purposes) from 2014.

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Professor Heungjae Jeon from the CUK College of Medicine