Tissue Engineering

Question 1: Dr. Williams explained his problem in treating the football player's injuries.
What are the characteristics of articular cartilage so that it requires treatment by tissue
engineering?
✓ Limited capacity for self-repair
– Handles minimum load in the body
– Contains massive blood vessel network
– Complex inorganic composition

Question 2: The primary element of tissue engineering, besides cells and growth factors, is a
scaffold. In this simulation, we will focus only on creating a scaffold.
What is the main purpose of scaffolds?
✓ Provide 3D structural support
– Cell division and gene expression regulator
– Cell source for tissue development
– Act as extracellular matrix and growth factors

Question 3: Numerous type of scaffolds for tissue engineering are available.

Which of these scaffolds do you think are appropriate as articular cartilage substitute?
✓ Hydrogel scaffold
– None of them
– Both hydrogel and solid scaffold
– Solid scaffold

Question 4: Crosslinks are bonds that link one polymer chain to another. Based on whether new
covalent bonds are formed, crosslinking methods can be divided into which two groups?
✓ Chemical and Physical
– Biological and Physical
– In-vitro and In-vivo
– Chemical and covalent

Question 5: Which ions can aid the crosslinking of alginate that is composed of mannuronic (M) and
glucuronic acid (G) residues?
✓ Calcium
– Hydrogen
– Sodium
– Potassium

Question 6: Which of these crosslinking methods generates relatively non-permanent crosslinks?

✓ Ionic crosslinking
– Enzymatic crosslinking
– Radical (UV) crosslinking
– Michael addition crosslinking

Question 7: Based on the data, which crosslinking method generates a very strong hydrogels?
✓ Michael-addition crosslinking
– Radical (UV) crosslinking
– Enzymatic crosslinking
– Ionic crosslinking

Question 8: Dr. Williams needs a scaffold for treating the injured football player. He needs to create
non-permanent scaffolds with excellent mechanical properties under 30 minutes.

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Which polymer and crosslinking method would you use the generate the hydrogel scaffold?
✓ Alginate and ionic-crosslinking
– Alginate and radical-crosslinking
– Hyaluronan and Michael-addition crosslinking
– PEG and radical-crosslinking

Question 9: Dr. Williams: Which class of hydrogel can eventually provide reversible gelling, and
can for example be reformed after shearing or melting?
✓ Physically crosslinked hydrogels
– Enzymatic crosslinked hydrogels
– Radical crosslinked hydrogels
– Chemically crosslinked hydrogels

Question 10: Dr. Williams: Which class of hydrogels is always long-term stable in medium?
✓ Chemically crosslinked hydrogel
– Ionic crosslinked hydrogels
– None of these
– Physically crosslinked hydrogel

Question 11: Dr. Williams: What will the hydrogels become when its elastic modulus gets higher?
✓ Stiffer
– More fragile
– Less stiff
– More elastic

Question 12: Dr. Williams: What will the hydrogels become when its elastic modulus gets higher?
✓ Stiffer
– More fragile
– Less stiff
– More elastic

Question 13: Dr. Williams: Which is NOT determine the mechanical properties of hydrogels?
✓ The site of transplantation
– The type of polymer
– Crosslinking density
– Polymer concentration

Question 14: Dr. Williams: What will the hydrogels become when its elastic modulus gets higher?
✓ Stiffer
– Less stiff
– More elastic
– Degrade faster

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