State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Nano-Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine, College of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200240, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Oct 2;16(39):52104-52115. doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c12245. Epub 2024 Sep 17.
Partial or complete rupture of the tendon can damage the collagen structure, resulting in the disruption of the electrical signal pathway. It is a great challenge to reconstruct the original electrical signal pathway of the tendon and promote the regeneration and functional recovery of defective tendon. In this study, carbon fiber-mediated electrospinning scaffolds were fabricated by wrapping conductive, high-strength, loose single-bundle carbon fibers with nanofiber membranes. Due to the presence of nanofiber membranes, the maximum tensile force of the scaffolds was 2.4 times higher than that of carbon fibers, while providing excellent temporal and spatial prerequisites for tenocytes to adapt to electrical stimulation to accelerate proliferation and expression. The diameter of the carbon fiber monofilaments used in this study was 5.07 ± 1.20 μm, which matched the diameter of tendon collagen, allowing for quickly establishing the connection between the tendon tissue and the scaffold, and better promoting the recovery of the electrical signal pathway. In a rabbit Achilles tendon defect repair model, the carbon fiber-mediated electrospinning scaffold was almost filled with collagen fibers compared to a nonconductive polyethylene glycol terephthalate scaffold. Transcriptome sequencing revealed that fibromodulin and tenomodulin expression were upregulated, and their related proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycan binding proteins pathways were enhanced, which could regulate the TGF-β signaling pathway and optimize the extracellular matrix assembly, thus promoting tendon repair. Therefore, the scaffold in this study makes up for the shortage of conductive scaffolds for repairing tendon defects, revealing the potential impact of conductivity on the signaling pathway of tendon repair and providing a new approach for future clinical studies.
肌腱的部分或完全断裂会破坏胶原结构，导致电信号通路中断。重建肌腱的原始电信号通路并促进受损肌腱的再生和功能恢复是一个巨大的挑战。在这项研究中，通过用纳米纤维膜包裹导电、高强度、松散的单束碳纤维来制备碳纤维介导的电纺支架。由于存在纳米纤维膜，支架的最大拉伸力是碳纤维的 2.4 倍，同时为肌腱细胞适应电刺激以加速增殖和表达提供了极好的时间和空间先决条件。本研究中使用的碳纤维单丝直径为 5.07±1.20μm，与肌腱胶原的直径相匹配，能够快速建立肌腱组织与支架之间的连接，更好地促进电信号通路的恢复。在兔跟腱缺损修复模型中，与非导电聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯支架相比，碳纤维介导的电纺支架几乎完全填充了胶原纤维。转录组测序显示，纤维调节素和肌腱调蛋白的表达上调，其相关蛋白聚糖和糖胺聚糖结合蛋白途径增强，可调节 TGF-β 信号通路并优化细胞外基质组装，从而促进肌腱修复。因此，本研究中的支架弥补了修复肌腱缺损的导电支架的不足，揭示了导电性对肌腱修复信号通路的潜在影响，并为未来的临床研究提供了新的方法。
