title: Self-assembled copper-capillary alginate gel scaffolds with oligochitosan support embryonic stem cell growth.
abstract: Biomaterial scaffolds are fundamental components of strategies aimed at engineering a wide range of tissues. Scaffolds possessing uniform, oriented microtubular architectures could be ideal for multiple tissues, but are challenging to produce. Therefore, we developed hydrogel scaffolds possessing regular, tubular microstructures from self-assembled copper-capillary alginate gel (CCAG). To abrogate the rapid dissolution of CCAG in cell culture media, we treated it with oligochitosan and created a stable oligochitosan-CCAG (OCCAG) polyelectrolyte complex. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed polyelectrolyte complexation between alginate and oligochitosan. OCCAG retained capillary morphology, shrank anisotropically in bulk, lost Cu(2+) ions, and maintained (71.9 +/- 5.65)% of its mass in cell culture media. Next, we seeded mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells within OCCAG scaffolds, and examined cell morphology and quantified cell growth and viability over four days. ES cells were guided to form cylindrical structures of staggered cells within scaffold capillaries. Analysis of the total cells recovered from the scaffolds revealed exponential cell growth (normalized to day 0) that was statistically similar to gelatinized-plate controls. OCCAG-cultured ES cell viability was also not significantly different from controls at day 4. CCAG-derived scaffolds can therefore serve as a unique platform for stem cell-based tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, 32610, USA.
authors.forename: Bradley J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Willenberg
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hamazaki
authors.forename: Fan-Wei
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Naohiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Terada
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Batich
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D002196:Capillaries; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002686:Chitin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry; D048271:Chitosan; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D003470:Culture Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D004573:Electrolytes; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003470:Culture Media; D004573:Electrolytes; D009844:Oligosaccharides; C493484:oligochitosan; D002686:Chitin; D003300:Copper; D048271:Chitosan