Bone marrow stem cells combined with polycaprolactone-polylactic acid-polypropylene amine scaffolds for the treatment of acute liver failure

Physical elasticity is a major mechanical property of several tissue types, and enormous efforts have been invested into the development of elastomeric biomaterials that mimic properties of native tissue. In the present study, a polycaprolactone-polylactic acid scaffold was photografted with polyacrylamide, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and insulin-like growth factor 1 to construct a novel scaffold, which was named the polycaprolactone-polylactic acid-polypropylene amine-insulin-like growth factor 1/tumor necrosis factor-alpha (PCL-PLA-PAAm-IGF-1/TNF-alpha) scaffold. Its inhibitory effect on cell senescence of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells was studied. When the PCL-PLA-PAAm-IGF-1/TNF-alpha scaffolds were transplanted into a rat model of acute hepatic failure, we found that the scaffolds clearly contributed to liver repair. The simple method presented here may be useful for the preparation of cell-scaffold complexes for liver tissue engineering.