Promoted Proliferation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells Enabled by a Hyaluronic Acid/Carbon Nanotubes Antioxidant Hydrogel

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) level is closely associated with the physiological function of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in ex vivo culture systems. Previously developed hydrogels in use of HSCs culture have generally failed in considering their antioxidant property. In the present work, antioxidant hydrogels are constructed to evaluate the biological effect of ROS on HSCs proliferation by suppressing oxidative stress damage. Functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which act as potential antioxidants, are physically encapsulated in biocompatible hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels to achieve long‐term antioxidant activity. Consequently, these hybrid hydrogels exhibit enhanced physical properties and superior scavenging capability on oxides and peroxides compared to the pure HA hydrogel. The results indicate that ROS significantly inhibit the biological characteristics of HSCs. Nevertheless, the proliferation ability and pluripotency are dramatically improved when the culture system is supplied with the antioxidant hydrogel, revealing that the CNT‐incorporated hydrogel can effectively relieve oxidative stress response in HSCs and reduce apoptosis from ROS. Therefore, the HA/CNT hydrogel can provide a novel strategy to establish an artificial microenvironment with a low ROS level for HSCs proliferation. A series of hybrid hydrogels based on hyaluronic acid and oxidized carbon nanotubes are developed, which show the enhanced physical properties and long‐term antioxidant activity. Hematopoietic stem cells incubated with antioxidant hydrogels exhibit evidently higher proliferation rate and more primary phenotypes, as well as better pluripotency.