Electrospun Decellularized Skeletal Muscle Tissue/Polycaprolactone/Polyaniline as a Potential Scaffold for Muscle Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Skeletal muscle tissue is capable of self-healing on a small scale. However, during extensive trauma or surgery, regenerative capacities are lost due to the loss of muscle cells and extracellular matrix. Therefore, the development of tissue engineering strategies for the regeneration of muscle tissue should be considered. In this study, we electrospun decellularized skeletal muscle tissue (DSM)/polycaprolactone (PCL)/polyaniline (PANi) as a bioactive polymer composite and investigated the structural characteristics, physicochemical properties, and effect of PANi on these properties. Next, the biological and myogenic effects of scaffolds on human Wharton's jelly mesenchymal stem cells (hWJ-MSCs) were investigated. The results showed that DSM/PCL/PANi is a conductive fibrous scaffold with favorable physical and chemical properties for muscle tissue engineering; it is biocompatible with hWJ-MSCs and stimulates their morphology. Additionally, hWJ-MSCs cultured on DSM/PCL/PANi showed a significant increase in the expression of MyoD, Myogenin, and MHC. Laboratory experiments showed that the electrospun scaffold of DSM/PCL/PANi is biocompatible with favorable physical properties for the growth of stem cells and the expression of myogenic markers, which can be useful in the development of biological scaffold approaches for muscle tissue engineering.