Fabrication, characterization and biocompatibility of collagen/oxidized regenerated cellulose-Ca composite scaffold for carrying Schwann cells

Schwann cell (SC) is the primary structural and functional part of the peripheral nervous system, and it plays a key role in the repair and regeneration of peripheral nerve. In order to develop a suitable scaffold for SC nerve tissue engineering, three kinds of scaffolds, including pristine collagen, pure oxidized regenerated cellulose-Ca (ORC–Ca) and collagen/ORC-Ca composite scaffolds, have been fabricated for carrying SC in this study. SC is then seeded on the scaffolds to form SC-scaffold nerve tissue engineering composites and evaluate their biocompatibility. The chemical and physical structure of the scaffolds are investigated by FTIR, NMR and SEM. The wettability of the collagen/ORC-Ca composite scaffold is close to that of pristine collagen, and the tensile strength of the composite scaffold (0.58 MPa) is better than that of pristine collagen (0.36 MPa). Cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, cell adhesion and western blotting assays are conducted to evaluate the biocompatibility and properties of different scaffolds. The results show that the three scaffolds exhibit no toxicity, and the proliferation rate of SC on the collagen/ORC-Ca composite scaffold is significantly higher than that of the other scaffolds (p < 0.05). The number of the adhesion cells on the composite scaffold (244.67 ± 13.02) is much more than that in the pure ORC-Ca group (p < 0.01). Furthermore, the expression of N-Cadheri and PMP22 proteins in the collagen/ORC-Ca composite scaffold is significantly superior to the other two scaffolds (both p < 0.01). Therefore, it could be concluded that the collagen/ORC-Ca composite is a promising candidate as a scaffold for carrying SC to form nerve tissue engineering composites in order to assist the peripheral nervous in the repair and regeneration.