Fabrication and Characterization of a Silk-PCL Based Scaffold for Ligament Graft

Abstract

Ligament gets damaged very often in cutting and pivoting sports. Current gold standards for ligament replacement are based on autografts which has limitations of inadequate strength and donor site morbidity. Thus, ligament tissue engineering is promising strategy for replacing severely damaged ligaments beyond repair. The objective of current study is to fabricate a hybrid scaffold for ligament graft with high tensile strength which will support cell proliferation. Briefly, knitted silk scaffold was made by use of wild type silk from Antheraea mylitta. Polycaprolactone (PCL) was electrospun on these knitted scaffold to facilitate cell growth. Degradation study and mechanical testing of scaffolds were carried out at five time points (0, 3, 7, 14, 21 d). Mouse fibroblasts (L929) were cultured on these nano-micro scaffolds to investigate the cell adhesion and proliferation potential. Cell proliferation was visualized under fluorescent microscopy and was analysed by MTT assay. Hybrid scaffolds showed slow degradation rate and high tensile strength, 22.75 ± 0.43 N at end of day 21. Cell adhesion efficiency was determined to be 92.28±0.61%. L929 cells grew profusely on the hybrid scaffold as confirmed from fluorescent microscopy and MTT assay. Silk-PCL based hybrid scaffold promises to be a better platform for ligament tissue engineering with optimal biocompatibility and mechanical properties.