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Gelatin-based hydrogel functionalized with taurine moieties for in vivo skin tissue regeneration

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Abstract

Functionalized hydrogels stimulate the migration and morphogenesis of endothelial cells (ECs) and are useful substrates for wound healing. The present study investigates the feasibility of covalent conjugation of taurine (Tau) on a gelatin-based hydrogel. This hydrogel is expected to maintain positive charged growth factors such as basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) near ECs within the hydrogel microenvironment. The gelatin was conjugated with hydroxyl phenol (Ph) and Tau moieties, and in following that Ph residues were crosslinked through a horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed reaction. The migration characteristics of ECs were analyzed by scratch migration assay and microparticle-based cell migration assay. Cellular morphology and amounts of angiopoietin 1 (Ang 1), bFGF, and VEGF proteins were evaluated for encapsulated cells. The potential of synthesized hydrogels in wound healing was assessed by the percentage of reduction from the original wound size and histopathological analyses of rat skin. The incorporated Tau molecules within the hydrogel remained stable through covalent bonds during incubation. During extended incubation, the gelatin-based hydrogel conjugated with Tau improved the migration distance and number of existing migrated ECs. Immobilized Tau within the gelatin-based hydrogel induced high motility of ECs, accompanied by robust cytoskeleton extension and a cell subpopulation that expressed CD44 and CD31 receptors as well as enhancement of Ang 1, bFGF, and VEGF. We found that injectable Gel-Ph-Tau effectively improves wound-healing parameters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tissue Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Fasa University of Medical Science, Fasa, Iran

    Farnaz Rahimi, Aida Goodarzi, Fariba Noori & Arash Goodarzi

  2. School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Nima Ahmadkhani

  3. Eye Research Center, School of Medicine, The Five Senses Health Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Sajad Hassanzadeh

  4. Skull Base Research Center, School of Medicine, The Five Senses Health Institute, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Sajad Hassanzadeh & Mehdi Khanmohammadi

  5. Department of Tissue Engineering, Faculty of Advanced Medical Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Sepideh Saghati

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  1. Farnaz Rahimi
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Contributions

FR, AG (Aida Goodarzi), and MK contributed to conceptualization; FN, NA, FR, SS, and SH contributed to formal analysis and investigation; NA, FN, and AG (Arash Goodarzi) contributed to writing—original draft preparation; AG (Arash Goodarzi) and MK contributed to supervision.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Mehdi Khanmohammadi or Arash Goodarzi.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All institutional and national guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Animal use and care were approved with National Ethics Committee of Fasa University of Medical Sciences (Ethical code: IR.FUMS.REC.1399.160) and were performed in accordance with the university’s guidelines. Furthermore, all animal experiments comply with the National Institutes of Health guide for the care and use of laboratory animals (NIH Publications No. 8023, revised 1978).

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Rahimi, F., Ahmadkhani, N., Goodarzi, A. et al. Gelatin-based hydrogel functionalized with taurine moieties for in vivo skin tissue regeneration. Bio-des. Manuf. 6, 284–297 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42242-022-00227-x

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