A Compositional Analysis of Human Nasal Septal Cartilage

Abstract

Background: Nasal septal cartilage is well established as an autograft material. Tissue engineering methods are now being developed to synthesize cartilage constructs with the properties of this type of cartilage. However, important baseline data on the composition of native septal cartilage is sparse.Objectives: To characterize quantitatively the major biochemical constituents of native adult human septal cartilage and determine age-or sex-related variation in composition.Methods: Cartilage was harvested from the inferior region of the nasal septum in 33 patients (mean±SD age, 47.0±13.5 years; range, 24-80 years) during routine septoplasty or septorhinoplasty. Biochemical assays were used to determine the quantities, relative to wet weight, of the major constituents of cartilage: water, collagen (from hydroxyproline), sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG), and chondrocytes (from DNA).Results: On average, each gram of wet cartilage contained 77.7% water, 7.7% collagen, 2.9% sGAG, and 24.9 million cells. Hydration and collagen content showed no significant age variation. Advancing age was associated with a reduction in sGAG content (7.7% per decade, P = .02) and cellularity (7.4% per decade, P = .05). No significant sex differences were found in any of these cartilage constituents.Conclusions: This study represents the first biochemical characterization of the composition of native human septal cartilage. The data serve as a baseline for future comparison of the properties of tissueengineered neocartilage constructs. Furthermore, the age-associated variations in cartilage composition have implications for patient selection for reconstructive procedures.

Distinction between the extracellular matrix of the nucleus pulposus and hyaline cartilage: a requisite for tissue engineering of intervertebral disc

“…This raised the question of whether this difference is unique to the endplate or common to all hyaline cartilages. Recent evidence was presented indicating that human nasal septal cartilage from young (33.7±3.9 years), middle-aged (50.2±5.4 years) and aged (73.5±5.8 years) adults had GAG/hydroxyproline ratios of 3.5, 3.3 and 2.5, respectively (Homicz et al, 2003). Similarly, others have found that in subjects aged 14 to 45 years the GAG/ hydroxyproline ratio in talar ankle cartilage, distal femur knee cartilage, and tibial plateau knee cartilage is 1.8, 1.3 and 1.3, respectively (Treppo et al, 2000).…”

“…As with articular cartilage, the discs are thought to resist compressive forces by their high content of the proteoglycan aggrecan in the NP (Hutton et al, 2000). In addition, both tissues also contain proteoglycans that have the ability to interact specifically with collagen molecules (Adams et al, 1977;Hayes et al, 2001;Sztrolovics et al, 2002).…”

Establishment of a Cytocompatible Cell-Free Intervertebral Disc Matrix for Chondrogenesis with Human Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells

“…Calf thymus DNA served as a standard (Invitrogen). The native tissue specimens, decellularized cell-derived ECM, and scaffolds seeded for 14 days with hBM-MSCs or hIVDCs were digested with proteinase K (Sigma-Aldrich) solution (10 mg/ml dissolved in 50 m M Tris/HCl, 1 m M EDTA, 0.5% Tween 20, pH 8.5) for 16 h at 55 ° C. Thirty minutes of centrifugation at 10,000 g followed and the supernatant was stored at 4 ° C. Based on the assumption that each cell contains roughly 7.7 pg DNA [Homicz et al, 2003], the semiquantitative cell nuclear content of the samples was estimated. GAG contents were assessed by standard DMMB assay [Farndale et al, 1986].…”

Biomechanics of fibrous proteins of the extracellular matrix studied by Brillouin scattering

“…The calculated refractive index is 1.42 + 0.02, smaller than that of the other samples studied. The elastic constants c 33 and c 11 were derived from the spectra at u ¼ 08 and 908, as before, using the density of wet articular cartilage [41], 1.1 g cm 23 (table 1).…”