Three-dimensional polydopamine functionalized coiled microfibrous scaffolds enhance human mesenchymal stem cells colonization and mild myofibroblastic differentiation

Mehmet Berat Taskin, Ruodan Xu, Hans Vejersøe Gregersen, Jens Vinge Nygaard, Flemming Besenbacher, Menglin Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Electrospinning has been widely applied for tissue engineering due to its versatility of fabricating extracellular matrix (ECM) mimicking fibrillar scaffolds. Yet there are still challenges such as that these two-dimensional (2D) tightly packed, hydrophobic fibers often hinder cell infiltration and cell-scaffold integration. In this study, polycaprolactone (PCL) was electrospun into a grounded coagulation bath collector, resulting in 3D coiled microfibers with in situ surface functionalization with hydrophilic, catecholic polydopamine (pDA). The 3D scaffolds showed biocompatibility and were well-integrated with human bone marrow derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs), with significantly higher cell penetration depth compared to that of the 2D PCL microfibers from traditional electrospinning. Further differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into fibroblast phenotype in vitro indicates that, compared to the stiff, tightly packed, 2D scaffolds which aggravated myofibroblasts related activities, such as upregulated gene and protein expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), 3D scaffolds induced milder myofibroblastic differentiation. The flexible 3D fibers further allowed contraction with the well-integrated, mechanically active myofibroblasts, monitored under live-cell imaging, whereas the stiff 2D scaffolds restricted that.

Original languageEnglish
JournalA C S Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume8
Issue25
Pages (from-to)15864–15873
Number of pages10
ISSN1944-8244
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • 3D
  • hMSC
  • myofibroblasts
  • polydopamine
  • wet electrospinning

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