Construction of Sandwich-like cell sheets with natural electrospun gelatin/chitosan nanofibrous delivered plasmid VEGF for accelerated wound healing

Abstract

Background Development of natural biodegradable electrospun nanofibrous with appropriate physical properties and biocompatibility is highly desirable to support multi-layer cell sheets construction for wound healing. Results We developed a series of electrospun gelatin/chitosan nanofibrous with different gelatin/chitosan ratios and controlled pore sizes, and impregnated plasmid VEGF into membrane, which as supporting membrane to construct sandwich-like adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) cell sheets with a simple and effective technique for accelerated wound healing. We found that the physical properties of the electrospun nanofibrous including water retention, stiffness, strength, elasticity and degradation could be tailored by changing the proportion of gelatin/chitosan. We further observed that the optimized electrospun nanofibrous with the optimal ratio of gelatin to chitosan (7:3) which were soft and elastic could most effectively support cell adhesion, proliferation and migration into the whole nanofibrous membranes. Nanofibrous delivered plasmid VEGF facilitating multi-layer ADSC cell sheets formation and promoting regeneration of cutaneous tissues within two weeks. Conclusions Such natural biodegradable and biocompatible electrospun gelatin/chitosan nanofibrous with plasmid have the potential to become fully cellularized and support sandwich-like ADSC cell sheets formation, which will make it suitable for widespread applications such as skin substitute or wound dressing.