Carboxy-Methyl-Cellulose (CMC) Hydrogel-Filled 3-D Scaffold: Preliminary Study through a 3-D Antiproliferative Activity of Centella asiatica Extract

摘要

This study focuses on the effects of using the water extract from Centella asiatica on the mortality of human lung cancer cells (A549) with the use of novel 3-D scaffolds infused with CMC hydrogel. A biodegradable polymer, poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) was used in this study as 3-D scaffolds, with some modifications made by introducing the gel structure on its pore, which provides a great biomimetic microenvironment for cells to grow apart from increasing the interaction between the cells and cell-bioactive extracts. The CMC showed a good hydrophilic characteristic with mean contact angle of 24.30 ± 22.03°. To ensure the CMC gel had good attachments with the scaffolds, a surface treatment was made before the CMC gel was infused into the scaffolds. The results showed that these modified scaffolds contained 42.41 ± 0.14% w/w of CMC gel, which indicated that the gel had already filled up the entire pore of 3-D scaffolds. Besides, the infused hydrogel scaffolds took only 24 hours to be saturated when absorbing the water. The viability of cancer cells by MTS assay after being treated with Centella asiatica showed that the scaffolds infused with CMC hydrogel had the cell viability of 46.89 ± 1.20% followed by porous 3-D model with 57.30 ± 1.60% of cell viability, and the 2-D model with 67.10 ± 1.10% of cell viability. The inhibitory activity in cell viability between 2-D and 3-D models did not differ significantly (p>0.05) due to the limitation of time in incubating the extract with the cell in the 3-D model microenvironment. In conclusion, with the application of 3-D scaffolds infused with CMC hydrogel, the extracts of Centella asiatica has been proven to have the ability to kill cancer cells and have a great potential to become one of the alternative methods in treating cancer patients.