Assessing the Proliferative Impact of Alginate-Gelatin Composites on Mesenchymal Stromal Cells

Traditional conducted on flat two-dimensional (2D) culture do not closely mirror the physiological and pathophysiological features of the in vivo environment including cell migration, soluble factor gradient and cell-matrix interactions. Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture overcomes these drawbacks by using 3D biomaterials, such as alginate hydrogels, to promote cell migration, vary biomaterial stiffness or permit cell-matrix interactions. In this study, it was aimed to propose a novel 3D platform including alginate-gelatin composites to address the need for tissue engineering techniques that support mesenchymal stromal cell viability and differentiation potential. In the first part, the absorbance spectra of different hydrogel-based biomaterials were examined using UV-visible light. After finding the best performing hydrogel, the work focused on cell proliferation using XTT viability assay and Live/Dead cytotoxicity assay. The cell viability of mesenchymal stromal cells in the best hydrogel biomaterial was compared to other scaffolds including cellulose, alginate-gelatin and only alginate. Alginate-gelatin hydrogel increased MSC viability, in comparison with other scaffolds such as alginate and cellulose. This increase also was significant compared to the cells grown in 2D culture. The findings of this study are consistent with the data of other studies in the literature. Thus, alginate-gelatin composites could be a promising candidate in tissue engineering to improve cell proliferation.