Biomimetic electrospun scaffolds from main extracellular matrix components for skin tissue engineering application - The role of chondroitin sulfate and sulfated hyaluronan

- Electrospun scaffolds were prepared from main extracellular matrix components.
- Combination of chemically modified HA and native CS was used a bioactive component.
- No difference in fiber morphology was observed among scaffold types.
- Sulfated GAGs released with a Fickian kinetic indicating the stability of the system
- Created artificial microenvironment promotes cellular adhesion and proliferation.

Incorporation of bioactive components like glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) into tissue engineering scaffolds, is a promising approach towards developing new generation functional biomaterial. Here, we have designed electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds made of gelatin and different concentrations of chemically sulfated or non-sulfated hyaluronan (sHA or HA) and chondroitin sulfate (CS). Evenly distributed fiber morphology was observed with no differences between varying concentrations and types of GAGs. In vitro release kinetics revealed that GAGs release is driven by diffusion. The effects of these scaffolds were analyzed on human keratinocyte (HaCaT), fibroblast (Hs27) and mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) adhesion and proliferation. A significant increase in cell number (~ 5 fold) was observed when cultivating all three cell types alone on scaffolds containing sHA and CS. These findings suggest that sulfated GAG-containing electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds might be beneficial for the development of effective skin tissue engineered constructs by stimulating cellular performance and therefore accelerate epidermal-dermal regeneration processes.

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