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An Injectable Nanocomposite Hydrogel for Potential Application of Vascularization and Tissue Repair

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Abstract

In this contribution, an injectable hydrogel was developed with chitosan, gelatin, β-glycerphosphate and Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide: this hydrogel is liquid in room temperature and rapidly gels at 37 °C; RGD peptide promises better growth microenvironment for various cells, especially endothelial cells (EC), smooth muscle cells (SMC) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). Both stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) nanoparticle and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) nanoparticles were loaded in the injectable hydrogel to simulate the natural nanoparticles in the extracellular matrix (ECM) to promote angiogenesis. In vitro EC/SMC and MSC/SMC co-culture experiment indicated that the nanocomposite hydrogel accelerated constructing embryonic form of blood vessels, and chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane model demonstrated its ability of improving cells migration and blood vessel regeneration. We injected this nanocomposite hydrogel into rat myocardial infarction (MI) model and the results indicated that the rats heart function recovered better compared control group. We hope this injectable nanocomposite hydrogel may possess wider application in tissue engineering.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciated the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 81771988), Key Project and Special Foundation of Research, Development and Promotion in Henan province (No. 182102310076), and Top Doctor Program of Zhengzhou University (No. 32210475).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab. for Advanced Technologies of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Material Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, People’s Republic of China

    Yilei Ding, An-sha Zhao, Ya-nan Wang, Yuan Gao, Jing-an Li & Ping Yang

  2. The Department of Pharmacy, Chengdu Xinhua Hospital, Chengdu, 610031, People’s Republic of China

    Tianmei Liu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450000, People’s Republic of China

    Jing-an Li

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  1. Yilei Ding
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  5. Yuan Gao
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Correspondence to An-sha Zhao or Jing-an Li.

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Yilei Ding and An-sha Zhao are joint-first-authors.

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Ding, Y., Zhao, As., Liu, T. et al. An Injectable Nanocomposite Hydrogel for Potential Application of Vascularization and Tissue Repair. Ann Biomed Eng 48, 1511–1523 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-020-02471-7

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