Kartogenin-loaded coaxial PGS/PCL aligned nanofibers for cartilage tissue engineering

Abstract

Electrospinning is a valuable technology for cartilage tissue engineering (CTE) due to its ability to produce fibrous scaffolds mimicking the nanoscale and alignment of collagen fibers present within the superficial zone of articular cartilage. Coaxial electrospinning allows the fabrication of coreshell fibers able to incorporate and release bioactive molecules (e.g., drugs or growth factors) in a controlled manner. Herein, we used coaxial electrospinning to produce coaxial poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS)/poly(caprolactone) (PCL) aligned nanofibers (core:PGS/shell:PCL). The obtained scaffolds were characterized in terms of their structure, chemical composition, thermal properties, mechanical performance and in vitro degradation kinetics, in comparison to monoaxial PCL aligned fibers and respective non-aligned controls. All the electrospun scaffolds produced presented average fiber diameters within the nanometer-scale and the core-shell structure of the composite fibers was clearly confirmed by TEM. Additionally, fiber alignment significantly increased (>2-fold) the elastic modulus of both coaxial and monoxial scaffolds. Kartogenin (KGN), a small molecule known to promote mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC)

Host Response to Biomaterials for Cartilage Tissue Engineering: Key to Remodeling

“…Articular cartilage exhibits excellent biomechanics due to its unique hyaline-like cartilage composition and the ultrastructure of the ECM, especially the tight network of type II collagen (Col II) fibrils and abundant negatively charged proteoglycan chains. The controlled mechanical properties of synthetic polymers can meet the biomechanical requirements of the process of cartilage regeneration ( Silva et al, 2020 ). Synthetic polymers have good plasticity, and their microstructure, morphology, and degradation rate can be predesigned and regulated according to the biology of specific tissue ( Wang et al, 2020b ).…”

Tunable Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Coaxial Electrospun Composite Nanofibers of P(VDF-TrFE) and P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE)

“…Compared to uniaxial electrospinning in which a single needle is used, coaxial electrospinning requires two concentric needles with different polymer solutions to produce the core and shell of composite nanofibers [ 31 , 35 , 36 ]. Considerable efforts have been dedicated to the multifunctional properties and novelty of electrospun composite nanofibers which hold great potential for electronic devices, biomedicine, and tissue regeneration [ 35 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The superior combination of the complementary polymers in the core and shell structure is beneficial to the mechanical properties over the neat polymers [ 42 , 43 ].…”

Advances and prospects in biomimetic multilayered scaffolds for articular cartilage regeneration

“…In cartilage tissue engineering, aligned nanofibres are ideal for mimicking cartilage tissue in the superficial zone with parallel fibres, while a random nanofibre arrangement resembles the collagen spread in the middle zone. Various materials can be used in electrospinning techniques, such as PCL, PLGA, PLA, SF, collagen and many other polymers [ 137 − 140 ]. It is appropriate to use electrospinning techniques for fabricating biomimetic multilayered scaffolds.…”