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Self‐assembled copper‐capillary alginate gel scaffolds with oligochitosan support embryonic stem cell growth
Author(s) -
Willenberg Bradley J.,
Hamazaki Takashi,
Meng FanWei,
Terada Naohiro,
Batich Christopher
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.30942
Subject(s) - materials science , tissue engineering , scaffold , stem cell , biomaterial , polyelectrolyte , embryonic stem cell , viability assay , biomedical engineering , self healing hydrogels , biophysics , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , cell , nanotechnology , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , biology , composite material , polymer , medicine , engineering , gene
Biomaterial scaffolds are fundamental components of strategies aimed at engineering a wide range of tissues. Scaffolds possessing uniform, oriented microtubular architectures could be ideal for multiple tissues, but are challenging to produce. Therefore, we developed hydrogel scaffolds possessing regular, tubular microstructures from self‐assembled copper‐capillary alginate gel (CCAG). To abrogate the rapid dissolution of CCAG in cell culture media, we treated it with oligochitosan and created a stable oligochitosan–CCAG (OCCAG) polyelectrolyte complex. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed polyelectrolyte complexation between alginate and oligochitosan. OCCAG retained capillary morphology, shrank anisotropically in bulk, lost Cu 2+ ions, and maintained (71.9 ± 5.65)% of its mass in cell culture media. Next, we seeded mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells within OCCAG scaffolds, and examined cell morphology and quantified cell growth and viability over four days. ES cells were guided to form cylindrical structures of staggered cells within scaffold capillaries. Analysis of the total cells recovered from the scaffolds revealed exponential cell growth (normalized to day 0) that was statistically similar to gelatinized‐plate controls. OCCAG‐cultured ES cell viability was also not significantly different from controls at day 4. CCAG‐derived scaffolds can therefore serve as a unique platform for stem cell‐based tissue engineering. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2006