posted on 2023-10-23, 15:14authored byChloe Dawson, Fei Xu, Todd Hoare
Structured hydrogels that incorporate aligned nanofibrous
morphologies
have been demonstrated to better replicate the structures of native
extracellular matrices and thus their function in guiding cell responses.
However, current techniques for nanofiber fabrication are limited
in their ability to create hydrogel scaffolds with tunable directional
alignments and cell types/densities, as required to reproduce more
complex native tissue structures. Herein, we leverage a reactive cell
electrospinning technique based on the dynamic covalent cross-linking
of poly(ethylene glycol methacrylate (POEGMA) precursor polymers to
fabricate aligned hydrogel nanofibers that can be directly loaded
with cells during the electrospinning process. The scaffolds were
found to support high C2C12 myoblast viabilities greater than 85%
over 14 days, with changes in the electrospinning collector allowing
for the single-step fabrication of nonaligned, aligned, or cross-aligned
nanofibrous networks. Cell aspect ratios on aligned scaffolds were
found on average to be 27% higher compared to those on nonaligned
scaffolds; furthermore, cell-loaded bilayer scaffolds with perpendicular
fiber alignments showed evidence of enabling localized directional
cell responses to individual layer fiber directions while avoiding
delamination between the layers. This fabrication approach thus offers
potential for better mimicking the structure and thus function of
aligned and multilayered tissues (e.g., smooth muscle, neural, or
tendon tissues).