Mrignayani Kotecha1, Sriram Ravindran2, Aishwarya Vaidyanathan1, Anne George2, Richard Magin1
1Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; 2Department of Oral Biology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
Biomimetic scaffolds have been shown to be effective for bone regeneration and similar strategies are under active investigation for cartilage tissue regeneration. The principal components for cartilage tissue regeneration are proteoglycans and collagen, II. We have investigated application of triple quantum sodium spectroscopy for characterization of biomimetic scaffolds for cartilage tissue regeneration. We found that the motional parameter ω0τc increases during the first two weeks and then suddenly drops before increasing again towards the end of fourth week. This is assumed to be an indicator of proteoglycans production during the early growth stage and random collagen network during the later stage of the growth.