The network structure of a three-dimensional hydrogel scaffold dominates its performance such as mechanical strength, mass transport capacity, degradation rate and subsequent cellular behavior. The hydrogels scaffolds with interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) structure have an advantage over the individual component gels and could simulate partly the structure of native extracellular matrix of cartilage tissue. In this study, to develop perfect cartilage tissue engineering scaffolds, IPN hydrogels of collagen/chondroitin sulfate/hyaluronan were prepared via two simultaneous processes of collagen self-assembly and cross linking polymerization of chondroitin sulfate-methacrylate (CSMA) and hyaluronic acid-methacrylate. The degradation rate, swelling performance and compressive modulus of IPN hydrogels could be adjusted by varying the degree of methacrylation of CSMA. The results of proliferation and fluorescence staining of rabbit articular chondrocytes in vitro culture demonstrated that the IPN hydrogels possessed good cytocompatibility. Furthermore, the IPN hydrogels could upregulate cartilage-specific gene expression and promote the chondrocytes secreting glycosaminoglycan and collagen II. These results suggested that IPN hydrogels might serve as promising hydrogel scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering.

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CRISPR/Cas13 systems are increasingly used for programmable targeting of RNAs. While Cas13 nucleases are capable of degrading both target RNAs and bystander RNAs in vitro and in bacteria, initial studies fail to detect collateral degradation of non-target RNAs in eukaryotic cells. Here we show that RfxCas13d, also known as CasRx, a widely used Cas13 system, can cause collateral transcriptome destruction when targeting abundant reporter RNA and endogenous RNAs, resulting in proliferation defect in target cells. While these results call for caution of using RfxCas13d for targeted RNA knockdown, we demonstrated that the collateral activity can be harnessed for selective depletion of a specific cell population defined by a marker RNA in an in vitro setting.

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