Enhanced proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rat mesenchymal stem cells in collagen sponge reinforced with different poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers

The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of collagen sponges mechanically reinforced by the incorporation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers in stem cell culture. A collagen solution with homogeneously dispersed PET fibers was freeze-dried, followed by dehydrothermal cross-linking to obtain the collagen sponge incorporating PET fibers. By scanning electron microscopy observation, the collagen sponges exhibited isotropic and interconnected pore structures with an average size of 200 microm, irrespective of PET fiber incorporation. As expected, PET fibers incorporation significantly enhanced the compression strength of collagen sponge. When used for rat mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), the collagen sponge incorporating PET fibers was superior to the original collagen sponge without PET fibers incorporation in terms of the initial attachment, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of cells, irrespective of the amount and diameter of fibers incorporated. The shrinkage of sponges during cell culture was significantly suppressed by the fiber incorporation. It is possible that the shrinkage suppression maintains the three-dimensional inner pore structure of collagen sponges without impairing the cell compatibility, resulting in the superior MSC attachment and the subsequent osteogenic differentiation in the sponge incorporating PET fiber.