A Biofunctional Fibrous Scaffold for the Encapsulation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and its Effects on Stem Cell Differentiation

Abstract

We report a collagen based fibrous scaffold for the encapsulation and seeding of human mesenchymal stem cells. The scaffold was fabricated through interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (IPC) of an anionic synthetic terpolymer and a cationic methylated collagen in aqueous conditions. The collagen in the fibers was labeled with quantum dots and was found to be evenly distributed in each fiber strand. Encapsulating human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) into these collagen based fibers and maintaining the viability are steps towards the creation of a biofunctionalised scaffold and the existing problems of the lack of cell infiltration in scaffolds and effective nutrient/waste exchange can be overcome. This cell encapsulation in scaffolds technique is simple and least toxic compared to existing fabrication techniques. hMSCs were seeded onto the fibrous scaffold and compared with hMSCs encapsulated within the scaffold. The cytoskeletal organization of seeded hMSCs and encapsulated hMSCs were different and the results were correlated to the gene expressions of both samples. © International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering 2009.