Nanoceria Can Act as the Cues for Angiogenesis in Tissue-Engineering Scaffolds: Toward Next-Generation in Situ Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Next-generation tissue engineering exploits the body's own regenerative capacity by providing an optimal niche via a scaffold for the migration and subsequent proliferation of endogenous cells to the site of injury, enhancing regeneration and healing and bypassing laborious in vitro cell-culturing procedures. Such systems are also required to have a sufficient angiogenic capacity for the subsequent patency of implanted scaffolds. The exploitation of redox properties of nanodimensional ceria (nCeO₂) in in situ tissue engineering to promote cell adhesion and angiogenesis is poorly investigated. As a novel strategy, electrospun polycaprolactone based tissue-engineering scaffolds loaded with nCeO₂ were developed and evaluated for morphological and physicomechanical features. In addition, in vitro and in vivo studies were performed to show the ability of nCeO₂-containing scaffolds to enhance cell adhesion and angiogenesis. These studies confirmed that nCeO₂-containing scaffolds supported cell adhesion and angiogenesis better than bare scaffolds. Gene-expression studies had shown that angiogenesis-related factors such as HIF1α and VEGF were up-regulated. Overall results show that incorporation of nCeO₂ plays a key role in scaffolds for the enhancement of angiogenesis, cell adhesion, and cell proliferation and can produce a successful outcome in in situ tissue engineering.