Tension stimulation of tenocytes in aligned hyaluronic acid/platelet-rich plasma-polycaprolactone core-sheath nanofiber membrane scaffold for tendon tissue engineering

Chih Hao Chen, Dai Ling Li, Andy Deng Chi Chuang, Banendu Sunder Dash, Jyh Ping Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

To recreate the in vivo niche for tendon tissue engineering in vitro, the characteristics of tendon tissue underlines the use of biochemical and biophysical cues during tenocyte culture. Herein, we prepare core-sheath nanofibers with polycaprolactone (PCL) sheath for mechanical support and hyaluronic acid (HA)/platelet-rich plasma (PRP) core for growth factor delivery. Three types of core-sheath nanofiber membrane scaffolds (CSNMS), consisting of random HA-PCL nanofibers (Random), random HA/PRP-PCL nanofibers (Random+) or aligned HA/PRP-PCL (Align+ ) nanofibers, were used to study response of rabbit tenocytes to biochemical (PRP) and biophysical (fiber alignment) stimulation. The core-sheath structures as well as other pertinent properties of CSNMS have been characterized, with Align+ showing the best mechanical properties. The unidirectional growth of tenocytes, as induced by aligned fiber topography, was confirmed from cell morphology and cytoskeleton expression. The combined effects of PRP and fiber alignment in Align+ CSNMS lead to enhanced cell proliferation rates, as well as upregulated gene expression and marker protein synthesis. Another biophysical cue on tenocytes was introduced by dynamic culture of tenocyte-seeded Align+ in a bioreactor with cyclic tension stimulation. Augmented by this biophysical beacon from mechanical loading, dynamic cell culture could shorten the time for tendon maturation in vitro, with improved cell proliferation rates and tenogenic phenotype maintenance, compared to static culture. Therefore, we successfully demonstrate how combined use of biochemical/topographical cues as well as mechanical stimulation could ameliorate cellular response of tenocytes in CSNMS, which can provide a functional in vitro environmental niche for tendon tissue engineering.

Original languageEnglish
Article number11215
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume22
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 10 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Aligned nanofibers
  • Bioreactor
  • Electrospinning
  • Hyaluronic acid
  • Platelet-rich plasma
  • Tendon tissue engineering

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