Production of Nanocellulose-Based Biopolymer Scaffold for Liver Tissue Engineering

Composite materials with tailored properties are increasingly sought after for tissue engineering applications. The aim of this work was to fabricate a nanocellulose-based biopolymer scaffold that was specifically designed for liver tissue engineering. Nanocellulose was extracted from natural sugarcane bagasse, which involved a synergistic approach that combined high-pressure homogenization (30,000 psi, 15 cycles) and enzymatic digestion (enzyme concentration: 7 %). The resulting nanocellulose exhibited an average size of 278.9 nm, a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.752, and a crystallinity index of 50 %. This optimized nanocellulose was blended with biopolymers, polylactic acid (PLA), and polybutylene succinate (PBS) for scaffold production using film casting technique. The composite material proportions were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM), which led to an optimal composition of 65.00 wt% PLA, 26.81 wt% PBS, and 8.19 wt% nanocellulose. In vitro cytotoxicity evaluation of the optimized scaffold revealed a high average cell viability of 96.65 %. Human Wharton’s jelly (hWJ) mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were seeded onto the scaffold and exhibited the potential to differentiate towards a hepatocyte lineage for 17 days. This work could be a significant initial step towards the development of novel nanocellulose-based scaffolds for applications in liver tissue engineering. HIGHLIGHTS Nanocellulose was produced through a combination of high-pressure homogenization and enzymatic digestion. The ratio of components in the nanocellulose-based biopolymer scaffold was optimized for production. The scaffold produced exhibited a high average cell viability. Hepatogenic differentiation of hWJ-MSCs was achieved on the bioscaffold. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT