Speaker
Description
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are among the most investigated and promising types of cells in regenerative medicine, due to their highly proliferative and multipotent capacities. However, when MSCs are cultured in vitro in traditional 2D culture systems, they gradually lose their differentiation and proliferative potential and their immunogenicity is altered. However, the physiologic functionalities of MSCs can be maintained when cells are cultured in 3D on suitable biomaterials.
Cellulose is an abundant, cheap, biocompatible and highly tunable material, and therefore represents an excellent biomaterial candidate. Thus, different porous cellulose hydrogel scaffolds were synthesized and their biomechanical and biological properties assessed towards their ability to support the attachment and proliferation of human MSCs. Two types of hydrogel morphologies were studied: anisotropic scaffolds formed by acid-induced gelation of oriented cellulose nanofibrils carrying surface carboxylate groups (cellulose I type) and isotropic, irregular scaffolds formed by spontaneous phase separation from solution state upon addition of a cellulose antisolvent (cellulose II). Materials of different bulk densities and pore characteristics were prepared and evaluated with regard to their mechanical, nanomorphological and biological characteristics.
Biological in vitro testing was accomplished by culturing human MSCs on these materials and monitoring their viability, proliferation and metabolic activity as well as the MSC surface marker profile during culture. Chemical functionalization of the scaffold materials and incorporation of specific migratory factors are promising approaches to enhance biocompatibility, cell adhesion and migration, for example.
| Speaker Country | Greece |
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