Improved chondrogenic response of mesenchymal stem cells to a polyethersulfone/polyaniline blended nanofibrous scaffold.

Owing to the fact that the cartilage tissue is not able to repair itself, the treatment of the joint damages is very difficult by current methods. Induction of tissue repair requires suitable cell and extracellular matrix. Providing these two parts can only be done using tissue engineering. In the present study, polyethersulfone (PES) and polyaniline (PANI) blend was electrospined for nanofibrous scaffold fabrication. Mesenchymal stem cells were isolated from human adipose tissue (AT-MSCs), and after characterization cultured on the PES-PANI scaffold and culture plate. Electron microscopic and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) colorimetric assays were used for biocompatibility evaluation of the scaffold and the chondrogenic differentiation potential of AT-MSCs were investigated by staining of proteoglycans and gene and protein expression evaluation. Alcian blue staining, real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and Western blot results showed that chondrogenic differentiation potential of AT-MSCs was significantly increased when grown on PES-PANI nanofibers and was compared to the one grown on a culture plate. According to the results, PES-PANI has a promising potential to be used as a biomedical implant in patients with joints lesion, such as arthritis and osteoarthritis.