The synergistic effect of aligned nanofibers and hyaluronic acid modification on endothelial cell behavior for vascular tissue engineering

The endothelialization of tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) is considered to be an effective strategy to prevent the coagulation and restenosis of small-diameter vascular grafts. In this study, we fabricated well aligned nanofibrous scaffolds with PCL using a high speed rotating collector, modified those surfaces with hyaluronic acid (HA) and studied the synergistic effect of the scaffolds on the endothelial cells behavior in vitro. The well-aligned oriented architecture was observed by SEM images in the nanofibrous scaffolds. The contact angle measurements and FTIR-ATR evidenced that HA was successfully modified on the PCL nanofibrous scaffolds and hydrophilicity of the scaffolds was increased after HA coating. The results of adhesion and morphology of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) showed that the HA-coating aligned PCL (HA-aPCL) nanofibrous scaffolds could highly promote attachment and guide HUVECs bipolar spread with the parallel aligned nanofibers. Furthermore, HUVECs on the HA-aPCL formed a confluent monoendothelial cell layer and exhibited superior protein expression levels of von Willebrand factor (vWF). This study suggested that the combination of aligned nanostructure and HA modification was more capable of promoting the regeneration of functional endothelium for vascular tissue engineering than individual use.