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Multifunctional Fibroblasts Enhanced via Thermal and Freeze-Drying Post-treatments of Aligned Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes

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Abstract

Parallel fibrous scaffolds play a critical role in controlling the morphology of cells to be more natural and biologically inspired. Among popular tissue engineering materials, poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) has been widely investigated in conventional forms due to its biocompatibility, low toxicity, and hydrophilicity. However, the swelling of pHEMA in water remains a major concern. To address this issue, randomly oriented and aligned as-spun pHEMA nanofibrous scaffolds were first fabricated at speeds of 300 and 2000 rpm in this study, which were then post-treated using either a thermal or a freeze-drying method. In cell assays, human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) adhered to the freeze-drying treated substrates at a significantly faster rate, whereas they had a higher cell growth rate on thermally-treated substrates. Results indicated that the structural properties of pHEMA nanofibrous scaffolds and subsequent cellular behaviors were largely dependent on post-treatment methods. Moreover, this study suggests that aligned pHEMA nanofibrous substrates tended to induce regular fibroblast orientation and unidirectionally oriented actin cytoskeletons over random pHEMA nanofibrous substrates. Such information has predictive power and provides insights into promising post-treatment methods for improving the properties of aligned pHEMA scaffolds for numerous tissue engineering applications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate Northeastern University for funding. The work is also supported by Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 11372205 and 31900964), Program of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (Grant no. 11110231281803), Scientific Research Foundation of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (Grant no. 11112932618215) and the Fundamental Research Funds of Zhejiang Sci-Tech University (Grant no. 2020Q002).

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  1. Ya Li and Qian Shen contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Textile Science and Engineering (International Silk College), Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, 928 Second Avenue, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Ya Li, Xinbo Ding, Tao Liu & Chengyan Zhu

  2. National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, Jiangsu, China

    Ya Li, Jing Shen & Jihuan He

  3. Putuo Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Qian Shen

  4. Yancheng Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Nanjing Universiy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yancheng, 224000, Jiangsu, China

    Ding Zhao

  5. Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831, USA

    Jiadeng Zhu

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  1. Ya Li
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Li, Y., Shen, Q., Shen, J. et al. Multifunctional Fibroblasts Enhanced via Thermal and Freeze-Drying Post-treatments of Aligned Electrospun Nanofiber Membranes. Adv. Fiber Mater. 3, 26–37 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-020-00059-3

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