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Graphene foam supports lab-grown cartilage for future osteoarthritis treatments

Boise State University researchers have developed a new technique and platform to communicate with cells and help drive them toward cartilage formation. Their work leverages a 3D biocompatible form of carbon known as graphene foam and is on the cover of Applied Materials and Interfaces.

In this work, the researchers aim to develop new techniques and materials that can hopefully lead to new treatments for osteoarthritis through tissue engineering. Osteoarthritis is driven by the irreversible degradation of hyaline cartilage in the joints, which eventually leads to pain and disability, with complete joint replacement being the standard clinical treatment. Using custom-designed and 3D-printed bioreactors with electrical feedthroughs, they were able to deliver brief daily electrical impulses to cells being cultured on 3D graphene foam.

The researchers discovered that applying direct electrical stimulation to ATDC5 cells adhered to the 3D graphene foam bioscaffolds significantly strengthens their mechanical properties and improves cell growth—key metrics for achieving lab-grown cartilage. ATDC5 cells are a murine chondrogenic progenitor cell line well studied as a model for cartilage tissue engineering.

Additionally, their specialized setup allowed full submersion of the 3D graphene foam scaffold, enhancing cell attachment and integration within its porous structure—highlighting a promising approach for improving engineered tissues using an electrical stimulus through conductive biomaterials.

"One of the biggest challenges in applying direct electrical stimulation to stem cells is achieving repeatable delivery while monitoring the electrical environment and mapping that back to specific cellular responses," said Mone't Sawyer, lead author of the study. "Our system introduces a modular and scalable platform that enables high-throughput, scaffold-coupled electrical stimulation with precise control—opening new possibilities for understanding how electrical cues influence tissue formation."

Osteoarthritis ranks as a world-leading cause of pain and disability, currently affecting over 595 million individuals—more than double the 256 million afflicted individuals recorded in 1990. The economic burden is large, with global costs exceeding $460 billion annually, including health care expenses, lost productivity, and disability-related costs. In the U.S. alone, OA accounts for $65 billion in direct and indirect costs, with over 1 million joint replacements performed each year to manage severe cases.

"Mone't's work is providing new fundamental insights into the role of materials and electrical stimuli in communicating with stem cells," said Prof. David Estrada of the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering. "I believe this work is setting the stage for greater understanding of the human electrobiome; that is, the role of electric charge and transport across different length scales and ultimately in cell fate to tissue function."