Abstract
There is a growing appreciation that engineered biointerfaces can regulate cell behaviors, or functions. Most systems aim to mimic the cell-friendly extracellular matrix environment and incorporate protein ligands; however, the understanding of how a ligand-free system can achieve this is limited. Cell scaffold materials comprised of interfused chitosan–cellulose hydrogels promote cell attachment in ligand-free systems, and we demonstrate the role of cellulose molecular weight, MW, and chitosan content and MW in controlling material properties and thus regulating cell attachment. Semi-interpenetrating network (SIPN) gels, generated from cellulose/ionic liquid/cosolvent solutions, using chitosan solutions as phase inversion solvents, were stable and obviated the need for chemical coupling. Interface properties, including surface zeta-potential, dielectric constant, surface roughness, and shear modulus, were modified by varying the chitosan degree of polymerization and solution concentration, as well as the source of cellulose, creating a family of cellulose–chitosan SIPN materials. These features, in turn, affect cell attachment onto the hydrogels and the utility of this ligand-free approach is extended by forecasting cell attachment using regression modeling to isolate the effects of individual parameters in an initially complex system. We demonstrate that increasing the charge density, and/or shear modulus, of the hydrogel results in increased cell attachment.
Highlights
The development of cell scaffolds that successfully mimic the extracellular matrix, ECM, is paramount if tissue engineering is to prove to be efficacious
The generation of a cellulose−chitosan hydrogel by phase inversion of cellulose dissolved in an organic electrolyte solution (OES) comprised of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, [EMIm][OAc], and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in a chitosan solution (Figure 1A) enables the production of Semi-interpenetrating network (SIPN) hydrogels, without the degradation of either polymer
Deconvolution of the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum in the fingerprint region (1400−1800 cm−1) and comparison with the spectra of pure cellulose and chitosan indicates that the hydrogels contain both cellulose and chitosan (Figure 1B)
Summary
The development of cell scaffolds that successfully mimic the extracellular matrix, ECM, is paramount if tissue engineering is to prove to be efficacious. The bulk mechanical properties of many synthetic polymers, suitable for osseous tissue, are not suitable for soft tissues, such as muscle or nerve tissues, because the physical properties, such as the tensile strength, are not matched.[1−3] The use of ECM and ECM-derived proteins have associated problems: scaffolds require well-defined microenvironments in which animal byproducts and contaminants are limited, which is difficult to guarantee with animal-derived scaffold materials, and ECM- To address these problems, alternative biopolymers that mimic the properties of the ECM have been sought. One variable at a time, approach, which can result in the oversimplification of complex systems, potentially resulting in missed interdependence, enabling understanding of the interaction between properties of the surface that, upon cell attachment, becomes the cell/scaffold interface, allowing scaffolds to be designed to maximize cell attachment
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