The Effect of Umbilical Cord Blood Serum and Platelet-Rich Plasma Coatings on the Characteristics of Poly(?-caprolactone) Scaffolds for Skin Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

The need for effective artificial skin as a substitute for damaged skin in chronic wound therapy is recently growing. Poly(?-caprolactone) (PCL) has been identified as a potential material for artificial skin scaffolds due to its exceptional mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, PCL lacks sufficient bioactivity, necessitating the introduction of bioactive molecules to scaffolds. Human umbilical cord blood serum (UCBS) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP), rich in bioactive molecules, are promising coating materials for PCL-based scaffolds. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the effect of UCBS and PRP coatings on the mechanical properties, cytotoxicity, and cell attachment ability of PCL scaffolds. Scaffolds prepared through glutaraldehyde-mediated cross-linking of 20% (w/v) PCL followed by freeze-drying were immersed with UCBS or PRP overnight. Coating scaffolds with UCBS generated a significantly lower Young’s modulus (0.20 MPa) compared to non-coated counterparts (0.27 MPa), while PRP-coated scaffolds showed no substantial change (0.24 MPa). Both UCBS and PRP coatings significantly increased (p < 0.05) the viability and attachment of primary human fibroblast cells on scaffolds, showing the potential to enhance PCL cytocompatibility for artificial skin.

Keywords

• artificial skin
• fibroblasts
• human umbilical cord blood serum
• platelet-rich plasma
• poly(?-caprolactone)