Synthesis and characterization of cell-laden double-network hydrogels based on silk fibroin and methacrylated hyaluronic acid

Abstract

Repair or regeneration of load-bearing soft tissue is one of the great challenges in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The main obstacle is mismatch between the properties of most synthetic biomaterials and the target tissue, such as the biomechanical performance. Currently, development of novel hydrogels with high mechanical strength and biocompatibility is the main goal of load-bearing soft tissue engineering. In the paper, a double-network hydrogel strategy involving silk fibroin and methacrylated hyaluronic acid was utilized to synthesize hydrogels through a combination of sonication and photopolymerization. Furthermore, due to the biocompatibility of the entire fabrication process, preosteoblast cells could be encapsulated within the hydrogel with high viability. The hydrogel characterization results demonstrated that the SF-HAMA hydrogels have many excellent properties, such as high mechanical strength, high water content, a slow degradation rate and biocompatibility. Two-dimensional cell experiments confirmed that the preosteoblasts could quickly attach and subsequently proliferate on the hydrogels, shown by cellular fluorescence staining. In addition, the studies of preosteoblast encapsulation and the following fluorescent staining demonstrated that the DN hydrogel could support proliferation and spreading of encapsulated cells, which suggests promising application of the hydrogel in the soft tissue engineering field.