McGarry Katarina, Sefat Eelya, Suh Taylor C, Ali Kiran M, Gluck Jessica M
Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2023 Mar 1;8(1):99. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics8010099.
Polymer scaffolds are increasingly ubiquitous in the field of tissue engineering in improving the repair and regeneration of damaged tissue. Natural polymers exhibit better cellular adhesion and proliferation than biodegradable synthetics but exhibit inferior mechanical properties, among other disadvantages. Synthetic polymers are highly tunable but lack key binding motifs that are present in natural polymers. Using collagen and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as models for natural and synthetic polymers, respectively, an evaluation of the cellular response of embryonic mouse fibroblasts (NIH 3T3 line) to the different polymer types was conducted. The samples were analyzed using LIVE/DEAD™, alamarBlue™, and phalloidin staining to compare cell proliferation on, interaction with, and adhesion to the scaffolds. The results indicated that NIH3T3 cells prefer collagen-based scaffolds. PLA samples had adhesion at the initial seeding but failed to sustain long-term adhesion, indicating an unsuitable microenvironment. Structural differences between collagen and PLA are responsible for this difference. Incorporating cellular binding mechanisms (i.e., peptide motifs) utilized by natural polymers into biodegradable synthetics offers a promising direction for biomaterials to become biomimetic by combining the advantages of synthetic and natural polymers while minimizing their disadvantages.
聚合物支架在组织工程领域越来越普遍，有助于改善受损组织的修复和再生。天然聚合物比可生物降解的合成聚合物表现出更好的细胞黏附和增殖能力，但存在机械性能较差等其他缺点。合成聚合物具有高度可调节性，但缺乏天然聚合物中存在的关键结合基序。分别以胶原蛋白和聚乳酸（PLA）作为天然聚合物和合成聚合物的模型，对胚胎小鼠成纤维细胞（NIH 3T3细胞系）对不同聚合物类型的细胞反应进行了评估。使用LIVE/DEAD™、alamarBlue™和鬼笔环肽染色对样品进行分析，以比较细胞在支架上的增殖、与支架的相互作用以及对支架的黏附。结果表明，NIH3T3细胞更喜欢基于胶原蛋白的支架。PLA样品在最初接种时具有黏附性，但未能维持长期黏附，这表明其微环境不合适。胶原蛋白和PLA之间的结构差异导致了这种差异。将天然聚合物利用的细胞结合机制（即肽基序）纳入可生物降解的合成聚合物中，为生物材料通过结合合成聚合物和天然聚合物的优点并尽量减少其缺点来实现仿生提供了一个有前景的方向。
