Isolation of collagen type II from bovine tracheal cartilage

Currently, the treatment of articular cartilage defects results in tissue repair that leads to osteoarthritis [1]. Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) is a technique based in obtaining autogenous chondrocytes from a cartilage biopsy. After culturing, the cells are seeded onto biodegradable scaffolds that provide the environment required for growing them. The grown chondrocytes replace and remodel the scaffold to produce artificial cartilage used for grafting. Indeed, surgical procedures based on artificial tissue have been already marketed in USA and Europe (Carticel^®, BioCart). Unfortunately, the clinical implementation of ACI has been limited by its high cost: Colombian patients who need ACI must travel to USA, Italy or Israel where authorized cell processing facilities are located. Therefore, there is a need for the development of in-site production of tissue engineered cartilage to provide patients of all socioeconomic status with ACI at a reasonable cost. A commonly biomaterial used to manufacture scaffolds for engineering artificial cartilage is collagen type II, a major component of the cartilage extracellular matrix. In this work scaffolds were produced using pure collagen type II isolated from bovine trachea. The microstructure of them was also studied.