Fish cartilage is known as a valuable source of natural biomaterials due to its unique composition and properties. It contains a variety of bioactive components that contribute to its potential applications in different domains such as tissue engineering. The present work aimed to consider the properties of backbone cartilage from fish with a cartilaginous skeleton, including elasmobranch (reticulate whipray: and milk shark: ) and sturgeon (beluga: ). The histomorphometric findings showed that the number of chondrocytes was significantly higher in reticulate whipray and milk shark compared to beluga ( < 0.05). The highest GAGs content was recorded in reticulate whipray cartilage compared to the other two species ( < 0.05). The cartilage from reticulate whipray and beluga showed higher collagen content than milk shark cartilage ( < 0.05), and the immunohistochemical assay for type II collagen (Col II) showed higher amounts of this component in reticulate whipray compared to the other two species. Young’s modulus of the cartilage from reticulate whipray was significantly higher than that of milk shark and beluga ( < 0.05), while no significant difference was recorded between Young’s modulus of the cartilage from milk shark and beluga. The gene expression of ACAN, Col II, and Sox9 showed that the cartilage-ECM from three species was able to induce chondrocyte differentiation from human adipose tissue-derived stem cells (hASCs). From these results, it can be concluded that the cartilage from three species, especially reticulate whipray, enjoys the appropriate biological properties and provides a basis for promoting its applications in the field of cartilage tissue engineering.

中文翻译：

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鱼软骨作为软骨组织工程中有前景的生物材料的初步评价

鱼软骨因其独特的成分和特性而被称为天然生物材料的宝贵来源。它含有多种生物活性成分，有助于其在组织工程等不同领域的潜在应用。目前的工作旨在考虑具有软骨骨骼的鱼类的脊椎软骨的特性，包括软骨鱼类（网状鞭鱼：和奶鲨：）和鲟鱼（白鲸：）。组织形态计量学结果表明，与白鲸相比，网纹鞭鱼和奶鲨的软骨细胞数量显着更高（<0.05）。与其他两个物种相比，网状鞭状软骨中的 GAG 含量最高 ( < 0.05)。网状鞭鱼和白鲸的软骨显示出比奶鲨软骨更高的胶原蛋白含量 (< 0.05)，并且 II 型胶原蛋白 (Col II) 的免疫组织化学检测显示，与其他两个物种相比，网状鞭鱼中这种成分的含量更高。网纹鞭鱼软骨的杨氏模量显着高于奶鲨和白鲸（ < 0.05），而奶鲨和白鲸软骨的杨氏模量没有显着差异。 ACAN、Col II 和 Sox9 的基因表达表明，来自三个物种的软骨 ECM 能够诱导人脂肪组织源性干细胞 (hASC) 分化为软骨细胞。从这些结果可以看出，三个物种的软骨，特别是网状鞭鱼，具有适当的生物学特性，为其在软骨组织工程领域的推广应用提供了基础。