Abstract
Nanodiamonds (NDs) have attracted considerable attention as drug delivery nanocarriers due to their low cytotoxicity and facile surface functionalization. Given these features, NDs have been recently investigated for the fabrication of nanocomposite hydrogels for tissue engineering. Here we report the synthesis of a hydrogel using photocrosslinkable gelatin methacrylamide (GelMA) and NDs as a three-dimensional scaffold for drug delivery and stem cell-guided bone regeneration. We investigated the effect of different concentration of NDs on the physical and mechanical properties of the GelMA hydrogel network. The inclusion of NDs increased the network stiffness, which in turn augmented the traction forces generated by human adipose stem cells (hASCs). We also tested the ability of NDs to adsorb and modulate the release of a model drug dexamethasone (Dex) to promote the osteogenic differentiation of hASCs. The ND-Dex complexes modulated gene expression, cell area, and focal adhesion number in hASCs. Moreover, the integration of the ND-Dex complex within GelMA hydrogels allowed a higher retention of Dex over time, resulting in significantly increased alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition of encapsulated hASCs. These results suggest that conventional GelMA hydrogels can be coupled with conjugated NDs to develop a novel platform for bone tissue engineering.
Highlights
Time with negligible tissue damage[38,39,40,41]
Dynamic light scattering (DLS) of the nanocomposite scaffold without Dex (ND)-Dex displayed an increase in the hydrodynamic diameter (Fig. 1F) which suggests the presence of the drug on their surface
We successfully engineered a novel nanocomposite hydrogel composed of gelatin methacrylamide (GelMA) and nanodiamonds as a promising scaffold to control osteogenic differentiation of human adipose stem cells (hASCs)
Summary
Along with the advantages mentioned above, NDs have been investigated as a filling agent to improve the mechanical properties of biodegradable poly(L-lactic acid) scaffolds showing the possibility to increase the compressive strength of these systems to near that of cancellous bone[20, 42,43,44]. Based on these encouraging studies, it is evident that NDs represent a possible strategy to modulate physical and biological properties of current scaffolds and further extend their application as bone regenerative materials. Overall this study sheds light on the efficacy of NDs in modulating the mechanical properties of GelMA hydrogels and their ability to control osteogenic differentiation of hASCs
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