Regenerative cartilage replacements are increasingly required in clinical settings for various defect repairs, including bronchial cartilage deficiency, articular cartilage injury, and microtia reconstruction. Poly (glycerol sebacate) (PGS) is a widely used bioelastomer that has been developed for various regenerative medicine applications because of its excellent elasticity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. However, because of inadequate active groups, strong hydrophobicity, and limited ink extrusion accuracy, 3D printed PGS scaffolds may cause insufficient bioactivity, inefficient cell inoculation, and inconsistent cellular composition, which seriously hinders its further cartilage regenerative application. Here, we combined 3D printed PGS frameworks with an encapsulated gelatin hydrogel to fabricate a PGS@Gel composite scaffold. PGS@Gel scaffolds have a controllable porous microstructure, with suitable pore sizes and enhanced hydrophilia, which could significantly promote the cells' penetration and adhesion for efficient chondrocyte inoculation. Furthermore, the outstanding elasticity and fatigue durability of the PGS framework enabled the regenerated cartilage built by the PGS@Gel scaffolds to resist the dynamic in vivo environment and maintain its original morphology. Importantly, PGS@Gel scaffolds increased the rate of cartilage regeneration concurrent with scaffold degradation. The scaffold was gradually degraded and integrated to form uniform, dense, and mature regenerated cartilage tissue with little scaffold residue.

Repairing cartilage defect is always an intractable problem in joint surgery field. Tissue engineering, in the industry, is universally considered as a decent solution for overcoming this challenge. Especially the three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds play a significant role in cartilage repair. Thereinto, the electrospinning has become a very attractive method for the preparation of scaffolds. In recent years. However, these scaffolds are limited in terms of their three-dimensional (3D) applications due to their two-dimensional (2D) structure and pore size which are smaller than a cartilage cellular diameter and thus limit the cellular migration in these structures. To address this issue, this study will present an promising post electrospinning approach that can transform two-dimensional scaffolds into three-dimensional scaffolds via the way of insitu gas foaming within the pores of the nanofiber membranes as the driving force. Our previous study reported that agelatin/polycaprolactone (GT:PCL) ratio of 7:3 might be suitable for the cartilage regeneration [Zheng R, et al The influence of Gelatin/PCL ratio and 3D construct shape of electrospun membranes on cartilage regeneration. Biomaterials 2014;35:152-164]. Therefore, in the present experiment, we chose the above ratio (GT:PCL = 7:3) to realize two types of scaffolds (2D and 3D scaffolds) transition via the gas-foaming technique and investigated whether the three-dimensional structure was more conducive to cartilage regeneration than 2D.The experiment results have revealed that 3D scaffolds can achieve a larger pore size, higher porosity and higher biocompatibility than 2D scaffolds. In addition, both scaffolds which were implanted with chondrocytes all had formed mature cartilage-like tissues after 8 weeks of culturing in rabbits, and the 3D scaffold formed a three-dimensional structure, whereas the 2D scaffold only formed a thin layer of cartilage. As the macroscopic and histological results showed after 12 weeks postoperation, in the 2D scaffold group, the defect was full of fibrillar connective tissue, and as shown by HE staining, obviously there is no staining with Saf-O/FG and toluidine blue on the surface of repaired site. On the contrary, in the 3D scaffold group, homogeneous and mature cartilaginous tissue were found in the defect area. The defect was filled with numerous new chondrocytes, and the histologicalstaining revealed a large amount of regenerated cartilage tissue which was perfectly integrated with normal cartilage tissue. The results distinctly indicated that the 3D scaffold led to better cartilage repair effects than the 2D scaffold. Generally speaking, the current study demonstrated that a gas-foaming three-dimensional electrospun nanofiber scaffold would be a potential platform for cartilage regeneration and might provide a potential treatment option for repairing articular cartilage defects.

The aim of this study was to measure the soft tissue of the external nasal base in Han Chinese women and identify indices with which to simplify morphological assessment. This study involved 155 Han women in China. The control group comprised 101 women, and the surgical group comprised 54 women. Using measurements and analytical software, we measured the nasal base on photographs in the two groups. The nasal base was also measured preoperatively and postoperatively in the surgical group. Results from the two groups were compared with a t test. The proportion index of the nasal tip triangle (upper nasal base) was c-prn/a = 0.33 ± 0.05 ≈ 1:3. The proportion index of the nostril trapezoidal (lower nasal base) was c-sn/all-alr = 0.25 ± 0.04 ≈ 1:4. The proportion indices of the nasal tip triangle and the nostril trapezoidal were larger in the postoperative surgical group than in the control group. Therefore, the nasal base morphology became stereoscopic through surgical correction. The current study provides a credible and objective reference for cosmetic nasal surgery. The proportion indices related to the nasal base can be used to intuitively and vividly ascertain the nasal base morphology. III.