In cell-based therapies for cartilage lesions, the main problem is still the formation of fibrous cartilage, caused by underlying de-differentiation processes ex vivo. Biophysical stimulation is a promising approach to optimize cell-based procedures and to adapt them more closely to physiological conditions. The occurrence of mechano-electrical transduction phenomena within cartilage tissue is physiological and based on streaming and diffusion potentials. The application of exogenous electric fields can be used to mimic endogenous fields and, thus, support the differentiation of chondrocytes in vitro. For this purpose, we have developed a new device for electrical stimulation of chondrocytes, which operates on the basis of capacitive coupling of alternating electric fields. The reusable and sterilizable stimulation device allows the simultaneous use of 12 cavities with independently applicable fields using only one main supply. The first parameter settings for the stimulation of human non-degenerative chondrocytes, seeded on collagen type I elastin-based scaffolds, were derived from numerical electric field simulations. Our first results suggest that applied alternating electric fields induce chondrogenic re-differentiation at the gene and especially at the protein level of human de-differentiated chondrocytes in a frequency-dependent manner. In future studies, further parameter optimizations will be performed to improve the differentiation capacity of human cartilage cells.
Keywords: capacitively coupled electrical stimulation; cartilage regeneration; chondrocytes; differentiation.