AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/ijb.4118
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Electrospun polylactic acid-glycolic acid composite hydrogel scaffold loaded with 3D extracellular vesicles for nasal septal cartilage defect repair

Jie Yang1,2 Haolei Hu2 Qiang Guo3 Xiaolei Chen1 Shuo Li1 Gang Yin2 Wei Yue2 Yi Zhang5 Boxun Liu5 Jianwei Chen4* Tao Xu4* Yi Li2*
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1 Department of Clinical, Faculty of Graduate Student, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang City, Henan Province, China, 453003
2 Department of Otolaryngology, The 988th Hospital of the Joint Support Force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, China, 450042
3 Department of Urology, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, No 26 Yuancun Erheng Road, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, 510655
4 Bio-intelligent Manufacturing and Living Matter Bioprinting Center, Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, 518053
5 Department of Research and Development, Huaqing Zhimei (Shenzhen) Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 518107, Guangdong, China
IJB 2024, 10(6), 4118 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.4118
Submitted: 2 July 2024 | Accepted: 19 August 2024 | Published: 20 August 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The nasal septum plays an important role in the growth and support of the human nose, and defects can cause nasal deformities. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have demonstrated great potential in tissue repair. Stem cell EVs are widely used in the repair of articular cartilage defects, but their use for nasal septal cartilage defects has not been reported. Due to the low yield and loss of EVs during in situ injection, improved preparation methods and better carriers are needed for the effective sustained release of EVs in wounds. In this study, swelling and degradation experiments were initially conducted on the scaffold, along with mechanical performance testing, including observation of the scaffold morphology using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Subsequently, in vitro cell experiments were conducted to evaluate the ability of 3D EVs to promote chondrocyte proliferation, migration, and extracellular matrix formation. Finally, the EV-laden gelatin methacrylic acid-polylactic acid-glycolic acid (Gel-PLGA) composite scaffold was implanted into the nasal septum defect site of rabbits in vivo to observe its repair effect on the defect. In vitro experiments demonstrated that the biological scaffold exhibited good biocompatibility and could effectively promote the proliferation and migration of chondrocytes. In vivo, the EV-laden composite biological scaffold was implanted into the nasal septum defect of rabbits, and the tissues were tested at 6 and 12 weeks after surgery. The results indicate that the composite scaffolds effectively facilitated the repair of defect sites. Taken together, 3D EVs facilitate tissue repair and healing, offering a novel approach to treating nasal septal defects.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
3D printing
Electrospinning
Hydrogel
Extracellular vesicles
Nasal septal defect
Funding
This study was researched by the Joint Construction of Scientific and Technological Research Grant (No. LHGJ20220916) and the Natural Science Foundation (No. 242300420125) of the Henan province, the 988th Hospital selects scientific research projects for key disciplines (No. YNZX2024007), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Major Project of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Bureau (No. KJZD20230923114302006), and the Guangdong Province key areas research and development plan (No. 2023B0909020003).
Conflict of interest
The authors have no competing interests.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing