Fabrication of Photo-Crosslinkable Poly(Trimethylene Carbonate)/Polycaprolactone Nanofibrous Scaffolds for Tendon Regeneration

Abstract

Xing Li1,2 ,* Honglin Chen3 ,* Shuting Xie,1,2 Ning Wang,3 Sujuan Wu,1,2 Yuyou Duan,3 Minmin Zhang,4 Lingling Shui1,2,4 1National Center for International Research on Green Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China; 2Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute for Life Science, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Minmin Zhang; Lingling Shui Tel [phone]; Email [email protected]; [email protected]: The treatment of tendon injuries remains a challenging problem in clinical due to their slow and insufficient natural healing process. Scaffold-based tissue engineering provides a promising strategy to facilitate tendon healing and regeneration. However, many tissue engineering scaffolds have failed due to their poor and unstable mechanical properties. To address this, we fabricated nanofibrous polycaprolactone/methacrylated poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PCL/PTMC-MA) composite scaffolds via electrospinning.Materials and Methods: PTMC-MA was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance. Fiber morphology of composite scaffolds was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy. The monotonic tensile test was performed for determining the mechanical properties of composite scaffolds. Cell viability and collagen deposition were assessed via PrestoBlue assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.Results: These PCL/PTMC-MA composite scaffolds had an increase in mechanical properties as PTMC-MA content increase. After photo-crosslinking, they showed further enhanced mechanical properties including creep resistance, which was superior to pure PCL scaffolds. It is worth noting that photo-crosslinked PCL/PTMC-MA (1:3) composite scaffolds had a Young’s modulus of 31.13 ± 1.30 MPa and Max stress at break of 23.80 ± 3.44 MPa that were comparable with the mechanical properties of native tendon (Young’s modulus 20– 1200 MPa, max stress at break 5– 100 MPa). In addition, biological experiments demonstrated that PCL/PTMC-MA composite scaffolds were biocompatible for cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation.Keywords: poly(trimethylene carbonate), composite scaffolds, tissue engineering, photo-crosslinking, creep resistance

Keywords

• poly(trimethylene carbonate)
• composite scaffolds
• tissue engineering
• photo-crosslinking
• creep resistance