Open AccessElectrospun Polyurethane–Gelatin Composite: A New Tissue-Engineered Scaffold for Application in Skin Regeneration and Repair of Complex Wounds
Author(s) -
Mohammadali Sheikholeslam,
Meghan E. E. Wright,
Niancai Cheng,
Hwan Hee Oh,
Yanran Wang,
Andrea Datu,
J. Paul Santerre,
Saeid Amini-Nik,
Marc G. Jeschke
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
acs biomaterials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.082
H-Index - 50
ISSN - 2373-9878
DOI - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.9b00861
Subject(s) - scaffold , gelatin , regeneration (biology) , biomedical engineering , materials science , tissue engineering , wound healing , transplantation , surgery , medicine , chemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , biology
Wound healing is vital for patients with complex wounds including burns. While the gold standard of skin transplantation ensures a surgical treatment to heal wounds, it has its limitations, for example, insufficient donor sites for patients with large burn wounds and creation of wounds and pain when harvesting the donor skin. Therefore, tissue-engineered skin is of paramount importance. The aim of this study is to investigate and characterize an elastomeric acellular scaffold that would demonstrate the ability to promote skin regeneration. A hybrid gelatin-based electrospun scaffold is fabricated via the use of biodegradable polycarbonate polyurethane (PU). It is hypothesized that the addition of PU would enable a tailored degradation rate and an enhanced mechanical strength of electrospun gelatin. Introducing 20% PU to gelatin scaffolds (Gel80-PU20) results in a significant increase in the degradation resistance, yield strength, and elongation of these scaffolds without altering the cell viability. In vivo studies using a mouse excisional wound biopsy grafted with the scaffolds reveals that the Gel80-PU20 scaffold enables greater cell infiltration than clinically established matrices, for example, Integra (dermal regeneration matrix, DRM), a benchmark scaffold. Immunostaining shows fewer macrophages and myofibroblastic cells on the Gel80-PU20 scaffold when compared with the DRM. The findings show that electrospun Gel80-PU20 scaffolds hold potential for generating tissue substitutes and overcoming some limitations of conventional wound care matrices.