K. Ma, National University of Singapore, Blk E3 # 05-14 Biochemistry Laboratory 2, Engineering drive 3, singapore, 117576, Singapore, Singapore
Additional injury to limited area of unaffected skin in patients with extensive burns compromises the wide application of skin auto grafts, therefore, ex vivo cultured epidermal and/or dermal cells have been utilized in auto grafts. However, it takes at least two weeks to achieve confluent epithelial cell sheets before transplantation and this time delay cannot satisfy the emergent clinical requirements. Recently, Bone-Marrow derived Hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs) have been reported to differentiate into the skin lineage in vivo. Therefore, our alternative strategy is to develop a smart nanofiber substrate (NFS) to capture HSCs from autologous bone marrow within a short time of 30 mins and immediately apply it to the wound site to enhance skin regeneration. In this study we fabricated a collagen-blended PLGA NFS by electro spinning techniques. Both Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) micrographs verify the free-beads, interconnected morphology of the blended NFS at a nanoscale, revealing that 8% is the best concentration for preparing the polymer solution. Attenuated Total Reflectance - Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) measurement shows the blended NFS is a mixture of PLGA and collagen. Mechanical property tests demonstrate the ultimate strain value and tensile modulus of blended NFS are comparable to those of human skin. Contact Angle Assessment suggests the improved capability for cell attachment compared with the pure PLGA NFS. Last, the capture percentage results show that among various substrates, E-selection coated blended NFS owned the strongest capacity for capturing BM-derived HSC, which are 67.41% within 30 mins and 70.19 % within 60 mins of incubation. Therefore, this modified blended NFS holds a great potential in facilitating wound healing in skin tissue engineering.
Summary: The E-selectin modified blended NFS holds a great potential in facilitating wound healing in skin tissue engineering.
