Fabrication of a novel hierarchical fibrous scaffold for breast cancer cell culture

Abstract

Scaffolds combining nano-and submicro-fibers closely mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM) have been poorly exploited for in vitro cancer cell culture. Herein, a combined electrospinning and modified in situ biosynthesis method has been developed to fabricate a novel scaffold consisting of bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers and electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) submicrofibers to mimic the fibrillar structure of natural ECM. The CA/BC nano/submicrofibrous scaffold was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), mechanical strength tests, porosity measurements, and cell studies using the MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In addition, the sensitivity of the cancer cells seeded in the CA/BC nano/submicrofibrous scaffold to an anticancer drug was assessed. It was found that the CA/BC scaffold exhibited an interconnected porous structure in which BC nanofibers penetrated into the submicrofibrous CA scaffold. Such sophisticated structure was responsible for the improved mechanical properties of CA/BC scaffold over the ones obtained using a single kind of fibers. More importantly, the CA/BC scaffold showed improved cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation over single BC or CA scaffold. Finally, cells grown on CA/BC scaffold exhibited a greater doxorubicin resistance than those on single CA or BC scaffold. The results suggest that the CA/BC nano/submicrofibrous scaffold has potential for application in in vitro tumor model for the study of cancer progression and drug screening.

Chemical Modification of Bacterial Cellulose for the Development of an Antibacterial Wound Dressing

“…In addition to this, it is possible that a certain degree of penetration of the cells into the polymer matrix occurred. Previous works evidenced in fact the ability of BC to support the infiltration of cells throughout the third dimension of the scaffold, in a proportional manner with respect to the cells size and the pore size of the nanofibrillar structure (Luo et al, 2019;Ul-Islam et al, 2019b).…”

Carboxymethyl Bacterial Cellulose from Nata de Coco: Effects of NaOH

“…Bacterial cellulose becomes a cellulosic white-to-creamy-yellow product called nata de coco. Therefore, the high intrinsic purity of bacterial cellulose from nata de coco together with the low environmental impact of the bacterium isolation means it is used in several applications, such as hydrogels [ 19 ], tissue engineering [ 20 ], cell culture [ 21 ], wound dressing and cancer therapy [ 22 ], CMC production [ 12 ], etc. However, the study of production and characterization of CMC films from nata de coco (CMCn) is limited.…”

Controllable synthesis of biomimetic nano/submicro-fibrous tubes for potential small-diameter vascular grafts

“…We previously prepared nano/submicro-fibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering or cancer cell culture. 16,17,65 Although the nano/submicro-fibrous structure was mimicked, the BC/CA ratio has not been modulated, which might affect the morphology, mechanics and in vitro/in vivo biological behaviors of the BC/CA grafts, particularly endothelialization. In this study, we can control the BC/CA ratio by adjusting the in situ biosynthesis duration.…”

“…The intrinsic topography of the basement membrane plays a critical role in adjusting the adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation of the overlying endothelial cells. 13 Although a great deal of research has been emphasized on the fabrication of nano/micro-fibrous 14,15 and nano/submicro-fibrous 16,17 scaffolds, nano/submicro-fibrous vascular grafts have not yet been reported. Furthermore, many studies focused on the fabrication of structurally biomimetic vascular grafts including bi-layered structures 10,18 and tri-layered grafts.…”