Differential effects of exogenous and endogenous hyaluronan on contraction and strength of collagen gels

The addition of exogenous hyaluronan to biomaterial scaffolds has been an important area of investigation for many decades. The ability to manipulate endogenous production of hyaluronan via the hyaluronan syntheses has offered another mechanism to study the effect of hyaluronan. While the literature suggests that exogenously added hyaluronan and endogenously produced hyaluronan will have varying impacts on extracellular matrix organization and function, no studies have directly shown this phenomenon. In this investigation, we demonstrate that the addition of exogenous high molecular weight (∼1 MDa) hyaluronan and hyaluronan oligosaccharides have a distinct impact on both contraction and strength of smooth muscle cell-seeded collagen gels when compared to the effects of hyaluronan that is endogenously produced by the hyaluronan synthases. More specifically, the addition of exogenous high molecular weight hyaluronan resulted in more compact collagen gels with a higher ultimate tensile strength, whereas the endogenous overproduction of hyaluronan resulted in the opposite effect. We suggest that the addition of exogenous HA to collagen gels represents a model for the therapeutic administration of HA, whereas the addition of excess HA to a tissue via the endogenous overexpression of has represents a model for the pathological accumulation of HA.