Cornea endothelial cells (CEnCs) tissue engineering is a great challenge to repair diseased or damaged CEnCs and require an appropriate biomaterial to support cell proliferation and differentiation. Biomaterials for CEnCs tissue engineering require biocompatibility, tunable biodegradability, transparency, and suitable mechanical properties. Silk fibroin-based film (SF) is known to meet these factors, but construction of functionalized graft for bioengineering of cornea is still a challenge. Herein, lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is used to maintain and increase the specific function of CEnCs. The LPA and SF composite film (LPA/SF) was fabricated in this study. Mechanical properties and in vitro studies were performed using a rabbit model to demonstrate the characters of LPA/SF. ATR-FTIR was characterized to identify chemical composition of the films. The morphological and physical properties were performed by SEM, AFM, transparency, and contact angle. Initial cell density and MTT were performed for adhesion and cell viability in the SF and LPA/SF film. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) and immunofluorescence were performed to examine gene and protein expression. The results showed that films were designed appropriately for CEnCs delivery. Compared to pristine SF, LPA/SF showed higher biocompatibility, cell viability, and expression of CEnCs specific genes and proteins. These indicate that LPA/SF, a new biomaterial, offers potential benefits for CEnCs tissue engineering for regeneration.

Gellan gum is a heterosaccharide composed of rhamnoose, glucuronic acid and glucose. It is a colorless tasteless odorless powder extracted from aquatic plants in Erodium. It is a biomaterial mainly used in modern tissue engineering. The chondroitin sulfate (CS) has been found to induce slow, sustained relief for osteoarthritis (OA) patients worldwide. It has been also proven a structurally improved arthritis drug that can relieve, delay or stabilize joint inflammation in many animal experiments and clinical trials, thus providing symptom relief in long-term. In this study, we investigated the effect of gellan gum scaffolds containing chondroitin for treating osteoarthritis in vitro. The content of chondroitin hybride in the scaffolds was set to 10, 20 and 30%, and scaffolds was prepared by hydrogel type. SEM was performed to characterize the scaffolds. The cell adhesion and proliferation rate were confirmed by MTT assay and gene expression by RT-PCR. In addition, the compressive strength test were perfomed to confirm mechanical strength. Overall results showed that 20% CS/GG scaffolds was best suitable for adhesion, proliferation rate and gene expression and can be potentially applied for cartilage regeneration.

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