Electrical field induce mBMSCs differentiation to osteoblast via protein adsorption enhancement

Electrical stimulation as a useful and simple method attracts a lot of attention due to its potential to influence cell behaviors. Reports on the change of cell interior structures and membrane under electrical field would be the possible mechanisms. However, changes in cell behavior caused by protein adsorption under different electric field has not been noticed and discussed yet. In this study, a composite hydrogel PDA-GO-PAAM with conductivity of 8.23 × 10−4 S/cm and has similar elastic modulus with pure PAAM was fabricated. It was found that BSA adsorption was higher on composite hydrogel，while electrical stimulation would further enhance BSA adsorption. Cell experiments revealed that electrical stimulation of mBMSCs insignificantly affect cell proliferation, and strongly promoted the expression of cell adhesion factors compared to the unstimulated control. Meanwhile, mBMSCs showed a spreading morphology on composite hydrogel and such spreading became even wider under the electrical stimulation. Under the effect of electrical stimulation, the larger the cell adhesion area was found on the hydrogel, the more the osteoblasts genotype and phenotype expression were, especially under the parameter of 1 V/cm and 1 h. Our results hence illustrate that electrical stimulation regulates osteogenic differentiation of mBMSCs via tuning cell adhesion and cell spreading mediated by protein adsorption. [Display omitted] •PDA-GO-PAAM with good conductivity and mechanical properties was fabricated.•BSA adsorption was higher on PDA-GO-PAAM, while ES further enhanced BSA adsorption.•ES promotes protein adsorption, cell spreading and osteogenic differentiation.