3D cell cultures in hydrogels for bone tissue engineering

JUAN PABLO ZANIN; ANABELLA ALLAMANDRI; TAIMI ESPINOSA REYES; GERMÁN GIL; LAURA E. VALENTI; RICARDO ROJAS

Congreso; Reunión conjunta de sociedades de Biociencias 2021; 2021

Cells in living beings are disposed in three dimensions and, consequently, growing cells in 3D cultures are a more realistic, physiologically relevant than in a 2D environment, the last being the more extended due to their ease of use. For tissue engineering, 3D cultures can provide more representative information of the cell proliferation and differentiation capacity as well as a measure of the need of vascularization of the artificial tissue. Here, we explore the use of two hydrogels, alginate (ALG) and silk fibroin (SF) as scaffolds for 3D cultures of cells, making focus on soft gelation processes that avoid compromising the cell viability. Alginate gelation was performed by Ca2+ crosslinking, which was tailored by the addition of Ca2+ containing particles and pH control, while SF gelation was induced by sonication. Then, the rheological properties of the hydrogels containing ALG and/or SF was evaluated. Finally, the proliferation and differentiation capacity of MC3T3-E1 Subclone 4 cells were analyzed in both 2D and 3D environments. SF exhibited a more simple and customizable gelation procedure than ALG, although the latter showed a more stable gel than the former. 3D cultures, although more complicated to obtain, significantly changed the behavior of cells. Consequently, this type of culture is the more appropriate to determine the capacity of these hydrogels to perform as scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.