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^* Meltblown Polymer Fabrics as Candidate Scaffolds for Rotator Cuff Tendon Tissue Engineering.

ABSTRACT: Various biomaterial technologies are promising for tissue engineering, including electrospinning, but commercial scale-up of throughput is difficult. The goal of the study was to evaluate meltblown fabrics as candidate scaffolds for rotator cuff tendon tissue engineering. Meltblown poly(lactic acid) fabrics were produced with several polymer crystallinities and airflow velocities [500(low), 900(medium) or 1400(high) m³air/h/m fabric]. Fiber diameter, alignment, and baseline bidirectional tensile mechanical properties were evaluated. Attachment and spreading of human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) were evaluated over 3 days immediately following seeding. After initial screening, the fabric with the greatest Young's modulus and yield stress was selected for 28-day in vitro culture and for evaluation of tendon-like extracellular matrix production and development of mechanical properties. As expected, airflow velocity of the polymer during meltblowing demonstrated an inverse relationship with fiber diameter. All fabrics exhibited fiber alignment parallel to the direction of collector rotation. All fabrics demonstrated mechanical anisotropy at baseline. Cells attached, proliferated, and spread on all fabrics over the initial three-day culture period. Consistent with the observed loss of integrity of the unseeded biomaterial, hASC-seeded scaffolds demonstrated a significant decrease in Young's modulus over 28 days of culture. However, dsDNA, sulfated glycosaminoglycan, and collagen content increased significantly over 28 days. Histology and polarized light microscopy demonstrated collagen deposition and alignment throughout the thickness of the scaffolds. While fiber diameters approximated an order of magnitude greater than those previously reported for electrospun scaffolds intended for tendon tissue engineering, they were still within the range of collagen fiber diameters found in healthy tendon. The extent of matrix production and alignment was similar to that previously observed for multilayered electrospun scaffolds. While the Young's modulus of scaffolds after 28 days of culture was lower than native rotator cuff tendon, it approximated that reported previously following culture of electrospun scaffolds and was on the same order of magnitude as of current Food and Drug Administration-approved patches for rotator cuff augmentation. Together, these data suggest that with minor polymer and parameter modifications, meltblown scaffolds could provide an economical, high-throughput production alternative method to electrospinning for use in rotator cuff tendon tissue engineering.

SUBMITTER: Jenkins TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5610401 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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<sup>*</sup> Meltblown Polymer Fabrics as Candidate Scaffolds for Rotator Cuff Tendon Tissue Engineering.

Jenkins Thomas L TL Meehan Sean S Pourdeyhimi Behnam B Little Dianne D

Tissue engineering. Part A 20170901 17-18

Various biomaterial technologies are promising for tissue engineering, including electrospinning, but commercial scale-up of throughput is difficult. The goal of the study was to evaluate meltblown fabrics as candidate scaffolds for rotator cuff tendon tissue engineering. Meltblown poly(lactic acid) fabrics were produced with several polymer crystallinities and airflow velocities [500(low), 900(medium) or 1400(high) m<sup>3</sup>air/h/m fabric]. Fiber diameter, alignment, and baseline bidirectio ...[more]

PMID: 28816097

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Project description:The rotator cuff consists of several tendons and muscles that provide stability and force transmission in the shoulder joint. Whereas most rotator cuff tears are amenable to suture repair, the overall success rate of repair is low, and massive tears are prone to re-tear. Extracellular matrix (ECM) patches are used to augment suture repair, but they have limitations. Tissue-engineered approaches provide a promising solution for massive rotator cuff tears. Previous studies have shown that, compared to nonaligned scaffolds, aligned electrospun polymer scaffolds exhibit greater anisotropy and exert a greater tenogenic effect. Nevertheless, achieving rapid cell infiltration through the full thickness of the scaffold is challenging, and scaling to a translationally relevant size may be difficult. Our goal was to evaluate whether a novel method of alignment, combining a multilayered electrospinning technique with a hybrid of several electrospinning alignment techniques, would permit cell infiltration and collagen deposition through the thickness of poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds following seeding with human adipose-derived stem cells. Furthermore, we evaluated whether multilayered aligned scaffolds enhanced collagen alignment, tendon-related gene expression, and mechanical properties compared to multilayered nonaligned scaffolds. Both aligned and nonaligned multilayered scaffolds demonstrated cell infiltration and ECM deposition through the full thickness of the scaffold after only 28days of culture. Aligned scaffolds displayed significantly increased expression of tenomodulin compared to nonaligned scaffolds and exhibited aligned collagen fibrils throughout the full thickness, the presence of which may account for the increased yield stress and Young's modulus of cell-seeded aligned scaffolds along the axis of fiber alignment.Statement of significanceRotator cuff tears are an important clinical problem in the shoulder, with over 300,000 surgical repairs performed annually. Re-tear rates may be high, and current methods used to augment surgical repair have limited evidence to support their clinical use due to inadequate initial mechanical properties and slow cellular infiltration. Tissue engineering approaches such as electrospinning have shown similar challenges in previous studies. In this study, a novel technique to align electrospun fibers while using a multilayered approach demonstrated increased mechanical properties and development of aligned collagen through the full thickness of the scaffolds compared to nonaligned multilayered scaffolds, and both types of scaffolds demonstrated rapid cell infiltration through the full thickness of the scaffold.

Dataset Information

^* Meltblown Polymer Fabrics as Candidate Scaffolds for Rotator Cuff Tendon Tissue Engineering.

Publications

<sup>*</sup> Meltblown Polymer Fabrics as Candidate Scaffolds for Rotator Cuff Tendon Tissue Engineering.

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