Heat conduction simulation of chondrocyte-embedded agarose gels suggests negligible impact of viscoelastic dissipation on temperature change

Agarose is commonly used for 3D cell culture and to mimic the stiffness of the pericellular matrix of articular chondrocytes. Although it is known that both temperature and mechanical stimulation affect the metabolism of chondrocytes, little is known about the thermal properties of agarose hydrogels. Thermal properties of agarose are needed to analyze potential heat production by chondrocytes induced by various experimental stimuli (carbon source, cyclical compression, etc). Utilizing ASTM C177, a custom-built thermal conductivity measuring device was constructed and used to calculate the thermal conductivity of 4.5 % low gelling temperature agarose hydrogels. Additionally, Differential Scanning Calorimetry was used to calculate the specific heat capacity of the agarose hydrogels. Testing of chondrocyte-embedded agarose hydrogels commonly occurs in Phosphate-Buffered Saline (PBS), and thermal analysis requires the free convection coefficient of PBS. This was calculated using a 2D heat conduction simulation within MATLAB in tandem with experimental data collected for known boundary and initial conditions. The specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity of 4.5 % agarose hydrogels was calculated to be 2.85 J/g°C and 0.121 W/mK, respectively. The free convection coefficient of PBS was calculated to be 1000.1 W/m²K. The values of specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity for agarose are similar to the reported values for articular cartilage, which are 3.20 J/g°C and 0.21 W/mK (Moghadam, et al. 2014). These data show that cyclical loading of hydrogel samples with these thermal properties will result in negligible temperature increases. This suggests that in addition to 4.5 % agarose hydrogels mimicking the physiological stiffness of the cartilage PCM, they can also mimic the thermal properties of articular cartilage for in vitro studies.