Dual plant compounds-loaded chitosan hydrogel-based scaffold promotes cell proliferation for repairing liver injury

Abstract

Liver tissue engineering is an essential approach to improve liver injury repair or regeneration for compensation of donor shortage, in which the combination of scaffolds and bioactive factors play a crucial role. Until now, a minimal number of products are used in clinic for their hurdles of biocompatibility. Here a degradable scaffold system based on chitosan polymers that are cross linked by Schiff reaction was prepared, which exhibits excellent biocompatibility and degradability. Two natural plant components with protective toxicity ability and improved tissue formation were loaded in scaffold to promote the cell proliferation as well as reduced drug dosage, further lowering the bio-toxicity of the scaffold system while ensuring its duration and effectiveness. Furthermore, our scaffold system possesses suitable degradation rate that match the regeneration rate of native tissue, which can maintain mechanical properties to support tissue formation during healing. The experiments results show that the scaffold system has the ability to enhance stem cell differentiation and promote liver regeneration, with non-toxic degradation products. In summary, the non-toxic, degradable scaffold system loaded with plant components holds vast potential in the field of biomedicine, providing a new approach for constructing safe and efficient biomedical materials.