Praseodymium-Cobaltite-Reinforced Collagen as Biomimetic Scaffolds for Angiogenesis and Stem Cell Differentiation for...

The present study describes the fabrication of collagen reinforced with praseodymium-cobaltite nanoparticles for wound healing applications. Praseodymium-cobaltite nanoparticles (PCNP) reinforced with collagen resulted in an increased thermal stability and decreased proteolytic susceptibility to collagen. Circular dichroism spectroscopy and ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy analyses confirm the intact structural integrity of the collagen sheets after cross-linking with praseodymium-cobaltite nanoparticles. Cross-linked collagen has shown to possess biocompatibility, less protein adsorption behavior, and hemocompatibility, which are the desirable properties of a wound dressing material. The nanoparticle cross-linked collagen sheets provided a proper matrix elasticity that promotes mesenchymal stem cell attachment and angiogenesis. Further, the scaffold promoted tube formation in endothelial cells. The enhancement of angiogenesis is considered to be brought about by the therapeutic potential of nanoparticle formulation. Praseodymium-cobaltite nanoparticle cross-linking increased the ductility of collagen sheets for the pro-angiogenic and stem cell differentiation ability. Also, the praseodymium-cobaltite cross-linked collagen sheets have been shown to induce a mild level of ROS (reactive oxygen species) generation in the DCFH-DA (2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate) assay, which is beneficial for angiogenesis as well as wound healing. This study paves the way for exploring the therapeutic potential of rare-earth-based nanoparticles for tissue engineering applications as an alternative for traditional wound healing materials.