Tendon Tissue Engineering: Effects of Mechanical and Biochemical Stimulation on Stem Cell Alignment on Cell‐Laden Hydrogel Yarns

TLDR

Fiber‑based approaches promise tendon tissue engineering by enabling aligned hydrogel filaments that guide collagen orientation and provide a biomimetic micro‑environment for cell attachment, orientation, migration, and proliferation. The study designed and produced a 3‑D system of cell‑laden, highly aligned hydrogel yarns via wet spinning to replicate the morphology and structure of tendon fascicles. The authors fabricated the yarns by wet‑spinning an alginate/GelMA bioink loaded with hBM‑MSCs, then subjected the scaffolds to mechanical stretching and BMP‑12 supplementation to mimic native tendon strains and promote tenogenic differentiation. The aligned yarns with mechanical and BMP‑12 stimulation produced highly longitudinally oriented cells, increased collagen I/III and tenogenic marker expression, indicating the system’s potential for tendon regeneration.

Abstract

Fiber-based approaches hold great promise for tendon tissue engineering enabling the possibility of manufacturing aligned hydrogel filaments that can guide collagen fiber orientation, thereby providing a biomimetic micro-environment for cell attachment, orientation, migration, and proliferation. In this study, a 3D system composed of cell-laden, highly aligned hydrogel yarns is designed and obtained via wet spinning in order to reproduce the morphology and structure of tendon fascicles. A bioink composed of alginate and gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) is optimized for spinning and loaded with human bone morrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs). The produced scaffolds are subjected to mechanical stretching to recapitulate the strains occurring in native tendon tissue. Stem cell differentiation is promoted by addition of bone morphogenetic protein 12 (BMP-12) in the culture medium. The aligned orientation of the fibers combined with mechanical stimulation results in highly preferential longitudinal cell orientation and demonstrates enhanced collagen type I and III expression. Additionally, the combination of biochemical and mechanical stimulations promotes the expression of specific tenogenic markers, signatures of efficient cell differentiation towards tendon. The obtained results suggest that the proposed 3D cell-laden aligned system can be used for engineering of scaffolds for tendon regeneration.