Anisotropic Poly (glycerol sebacate)-Poly (ε-caprolactone) Electrospun Fibers Promote Endothelial Cell Guidance

摘要

Topographical cell guidance is utilized to engineer highly organized and aligned cellular constructs for numerous tissue engineering applications. Recently, electrospun scaffolds fabricated using poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) have shown a great promise to support valvular interstitial cell functions for the development of tissue engineered heart valves. However, one of the major drawbacks of PGS-PCL scaffolds is the lack of control over cellular alignment. In this work we investigate the role of scaffold architecture on the endothelial cell alignment, proliferation and formation of organized cellular structures. In particular, PGS-PCL scaffolds with randomly oriented and highly aligned fibers with tunable mechanical properties were fabricated using electrospinning technique. After one week of culture, endothelial cells on the aligned scaffolds exhibit higher proliferation compared to those cultures on randomly oriented fibrous scaffolds. Furthermore, the endothelial cells reorganize in response to the topographical features of anisotropic scaffolds forming highly organize cellular constructs. Thus, the topographical contact guidance, provided by aligned PGS-PCL scaffolds, is envisioned to be useful in developing aligned cellular structures for vascular tissue engineering.