RGDS- and SIKVAVS-Modified Superporous Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

Three-dimensional hydrogel supports for mesenchymal and neural stem cells (NSCs) are promising materials for tissue engineering applications such as spinal cord repair. This study involves the preparation and characterization of superporous scaffolds based on a copolymer of 2-hydroxyethyl and 2-aminoethyl methacrylate (HEMA and AEMA) crosslinked with ethylene dimethacrylate. Ammonium oxalate is chosen as a suitable porogen because it consists of needle-like crystals, allowing their parallel arrangement in the polymerization mold. The amino group of AEMA is used to immobilize RGDS and SIKVAVS peptide sequences with an N-γ-maleimidobutyryloxy succinimide ester linker. The amount of the peptide on the scaffold is determined using I radiolabeled SIKVAVS. Both RGDS- and SIKVAVS-modified poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) scaffolds serve as supports for culturing human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and human fetal NSCs. The RGDS sequence is found to be better for MSC and NSC proliferation and growth than SIKVAVS.

Ile‐Lys‐Val‐ala‐Val (IKVAV) peptide for neuronal tissue engineering

“…In another study, to improve the interaction of the super‐porous copolymer hydrogel scaffolds HEMA and AEMA with hMSCs and human fetal NSCs, the Ac‐CGGASIKVAVS‐OH (SIKVAV) peptide was covalently attached to the copolymer. It has been shown that the adhesion of hMSCs markedly improved on SIKVAVSP (HEMA‐co‐AEMA) compared with that on pure P (HEMA‐co‐AEMA) scaffolds . A hydrogel scaffold of well‐defined geometry was created by modifying the P (HEMA‐co‐AEMA) scaffold with covalently attached CDPGYIGSR and CQAASIKVAV.…”

“…It has been shown that the adhesion of hMSCs markedly improved on SIKVAVSP (HEMA-co-AEMA) compared with that on pure P (HEMA-co-AEMA) scaffolds. 44 A hydrogel scaffold of welldefined geometry was created by modifying the P (HEMA-co-AEMA) scaffold with covalently attached CDPGYIGSR and CQAASIKVAV.…”

Revealing the True Morphological Structure of Macroporous Soft Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering

“…The porogen leaching technique is a well-established effective method of introducing pores of the desired shape, size, and orientation to the gel matrix. With the advantage of ease of use and biological safeness, different materials such as sodium chloride [12], ammonium oxalate crystals [19], and paraffin [20] have been used. However, there are challenges related to appropriate design or porogen packing to achieve connected porosity on one side and a coherent gel matrix on the other side through tuned concentration and the placement of particles in the polymerization mixture [21,22].…”

Injectable hydroxyphenyl derivative of hyaluronic acid hydrogel modified with RGD as scaffold for spinal cord injury repair

“…To enhance cell adhesion and migration into implants, the HA-PH was functionalized with RGD oligopeptide sequence, which has affinity for multiple integrin receptors, and has been previously shown to support effective cell spreading and cytoskeletal organization, as well as cell proliferation. 42 However, an important factor in the establishment of cell adhesion is ligand density, which is, in the case of used HA-PH-RGD derivative, limited to the DS of PH-RGD oligopeptide. Hydrogel containing 20 mg/mL of the new designed HA-PH-RGD conjugate with a DS of 2.5% achieved a concentration of RGD sequence 1 mmol/mL of hydrogel.…”