Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Encapsulated in Functionalized Gellan Gum/Collagen Hydrogel for Effective Vascularization

Gellan gum hydrogel holds great potential in tissue engineering, but the high phase transition temperature greatly inhibits the applications in biomedical field. In this study, gellan gum was modified with methacrylic anhydride, and then the phase transition temperature was reduced. The functionalized gellan gum together with type I collagen was gelled by ion/photo dual-cross-linking for fabricating bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs)-encapsulating hydrogel for vascularization. After the ratio between gellan gum and collagen was optimized, the hydrogel with proper pore size and mechanical properties was prepared. The WST assay demonstrated that the hydrogel could offer excellent microenvironment for cell survival and proliferation. Finally, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction suggests that the hydrogel could promote BMSCs to differentiate into endothelial cells. Together, this work provides a general strategy for fabricating BMSCs-encapsulating hydrogel in one step, which has the potential for 3D-printing live cell scaffold for study of vasculogenic differentiation.