Pasini Chiara, Re Federica, Trenta Federica, Russo Domenico, Sartore Luciana
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy.
Blood Diseases and Cell Therapies Unit, Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, "ASST-Spedali Civili" Hospital of Brescia, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, 25123 Brescia, Italy.
Gels. 2024 Jun 28;10(7):426. doi: 10.3390/gels10070426.
Motivated by the enormous potential of hydrogels in regenerative medicine, new biocompatible gelatin-based hybrid hydrogels were developed through a green process using poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether as a cross-linking agent, adding carrageenan and chitosan polysaccharides to the network to better mimic the hybrid composition of native extracellular matrix. Overall, the hydrogels show suitable structural stability, high porosity and pore interconnectivity, good swellability, and finally, biocompatibility. Their mechanical behavior, investigated by tensile and compression tests, appears to be characterized by nonlinear elasticity with high compliance values, fast stress-relaxation, and good strain reversibility with no sign of mechanical failure for compressive loading-unloading cycles at relatively high deformation levels of 50%. Degradation tests confirm the hydrogel bioresorbability by gradual hydrolysis, during which the structural integrity of both materials is maintained, while their mechanical behavior becomes more and more compliant. Human Umbilical Cord-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hUC-MSCs) were used to test the hydrogels as potential carriers for cell delivery in tissue engineering. hUC-MSCs cultured inside the hydrogels show a homogenous distribution and maintain their growth and viability for at least 21 days of culture, with an increasing proliferation trend. Hence, this study contributes to a further understanding of the potential use of hybrid hydrogels and hUC-MSCs for a wide range of biomedical applications, particularly in soft tissue engineering.
受水凝胶在再生医学中巨大潜力的推动，通过绿色工艺开发了新型生物相容性明胶基混合水凝胶，该工艺使用聚乙二醇二缩水甘油醚作为交联剂，在网络中添加卡拉胶和壳聚糖多糖，以更好地模拟天然细胞外基质的混合组成。总体而言，这些水凝胶表现出合适的结构稳定性、高孔隙率和孔隙连通性、良好的溶胀性，最终还具有生物相容性。通过拉伸和压缩试验研究其力学行为，结果表明其特征为具有高顺应性值的非线性弹性、快速应力松弛以及良好的应变可逆性，在50%的相对高变形水平下进行压缩加载-卸载循环时无机械失效迹象。降解试验通过逐步水解证实了水凝胶的生物可吸收性，在此过程中两种材料的结构完整性得以维持，而它们的力学行为变得越来越柔顺。人脐带间充质干细胞（hUC-MSCs）被用于测试这些水凝胶作为组织工程中细胞递送潜在载体的性能。在水凝胶内部培养的hUC-MSCs呈现出均匀分布，并在至少21天的培养过程中保持其生长和活力，且增殖趋势不断增加。因此，本研究有助于进一步了解混合水凝胶和hUC-MSCs在广泛生物医学应用中的潜在用途，特别是在软组织工程中的应用。
