Guiding the orientation of smooth muscle cells on random and aligned polyurethane/collagen nanofibers

Fabricating scaffolds that can simulate the architecture and functionality of native extracellular matrix is a huge challenge in vascular tissue engineering. Various kinds of materials are engineered via nano-technological approaches to meet the current challenges in vascular tissue regeneration. During this study, nanofibers from pure polyurethane and hybrid polyurethane/collagen in two different morphologies (random and aligned) and in three different ratios of polyurethane: collagen (75:25; 50:50; 25:75) are fabricated by electrospinning. The fiber diameters of the nanofibrous scaffolds are in the range of 174-453 nm and 145-419 for random and aligned fibers, respectively, where they closely mimic the nanoscale dimensions of native extracellular matrix. The aligned polyurethane/collagen nanofibers expressed anisotropic wettability with mechanical properties which is suitable for regeneration of the artery. After 12 days of human aortic smooth muscle cells culture on different scaffolds, the proliferation of smooth muscle cells on hybrid polyurethane/collagen (3:1) nanofibers was 173% and 212% higher than on pure polyurethane scaffolds for random and aligned scaffolds, respectively. The results of cell morphology and protein staining showed that the aligned polyurethane/collagen (3:1) scaffold promote smooth muscle cells alignment through contact guidance, while the random polyurethane/collagen (3:1) also guided cell orientation most probably due to the inherent biochemical composition. Our studies demonstrate the potential of aligned and random polyurethane/collagen (3:1) as promising substrates for vascular tissue regeneration.