Poly(amino acid)-based fibrous scaffolds modified with surface-pendant peptides for cartilage tissue engineering

In this study, fibrous scaffolds based on poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG) were investigated in terms of the chondrogenic differentiation potential of human tooth germ stem cells (HTGSCs). Through the solution-assisted bonding of the fibres, fully connected scaffolds with pore sizes in the range 20–400 μm were prepared. Biomimetic modification of the PBLG scaffolds was achieved by a two-step reaction procedure: first, aminolysis of the PBLG fibres’ surface layers was performed, which resulted in an increase in the hydrophilicity of the fibrous scaffolds after the introduction of N 5 -hydroxyethyl-L-glutamine units; and second, modification with the short peptide sequence azidopentanoyl–GGGRGDSGGGY–NH2 ,u sing the ’click’ reaction on the previously modified scaffold with 2-propynyl side-chains, was performed. Radio-assay of the 125 I-labelled peptide was used to evaluate the RGD density in the fibrous scaffolds (which varied in the range 10 –3 –10 pM/cm 2 ). All the PBLG scaffolds, especially with density 90 ± 20 fM/cm 2 and 200 ± 100 fM/cm 2 RGD, were found to be potentially suitable for growth and chondrogenic differentiation of HTGSCs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.