Effects of alginate-chitosan core-shell nanoparticles encapsulated in gelatin methacrylate hydrogel on chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells

Abstract

In this paper, gelatin methacrylate hydrogel scaffold, functionalized with growth factors loaded alginate-chitosan core-shell nanoparticles, were developed to enhance chondrogenic differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells. With the chosen preparation conditions, the encapsulation efficiency of transforming growth factorβ-1 (TGFβ-1) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was calculated at 93.34% and 91.92%, respectively. The assay groups which contain loaded nanoparticles in hydrogels exhibited the highest DNA and glycosaminoglycan contents with 2.93 and 573.60 µg/sample, respectively. Moreover, in the same group, it was observed that the amount of collagen also increased by 3.6-fold. Thus, the functionalized scaffold is promising construct for tissue engineering applications.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• alginate-chitosan
• chondrogenesis
• core-shell nanoparticles
• gelatin methacrylate
• tissue engineering

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Pezhman Hosseinian for his valuable contributions to the synthesis of GelMA.

Disclosure statement

The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from Hacettepe University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (Project no: 1188).