Anisotropic PLGA microsphere/PVA hydrogel composite with aligned macroporous structures for directed cell adhesion and proliferation

Abstract

The fabrication of bio tissues using anisotropic constructs capable of repairing and/or replacing diseased bio tissues remains a significant challenge in tissue engineering. Therefore, this study investigated the fabrication of an anisotropic PLGA-microspheres/PVA-hydrogel composite using a novel directional freezing-thawing (DFT) technique. The DFT technique altered the properties of the anisotropic PLGA-microspheres/PVA-hydrogel composite, such that its compressive strength improved from 14.64 ± 1.09 MPa after three DFT cycles to 45.77 ± 6.73 MPa after nine cycles. The utilization of the DFT technique was also shown to enhance the proliferation and adhesion of cultured chondrocyte cells. The obtained results demonstrated that DFT constituted a facile method to fabricate anisotropic microsphere/hydrogel composites with improved and directed cell adhesion characteristics.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Anisotropic structure
• cartilage cell adhesion
• PLGA microspheres
• PVA hydrogel

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51773161), and the Technological Innovation Project of Rizhao City (2019CXZX1108). Lei Nie acknowleges the support from Yang Yuan.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.