Effect of Pre-Incubation of Electrospun Silk Fibroin Scaffold in Complete and Serum-Free Media on Survival and Proliferation of Rat Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Developing scaffolds is important for tissue engineering and repairing damaged tissues. The present study aimed to investigate effects of pre-incubation of an electrospun silk fibroin scaffold in complete and serum-free media on proliferation and survival of cells seeded on the scaffold.

After removing sericin from the silk cocoon and preparing the fibroin solution (3% w/v), the electrospun silk fibroin scaffold was fabricated and its morphology was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy. The scaffolds were pre-incubated in complete and serum-free Dulbecco's Modified Eagle media for one hour (short-term) and 10 days (long-term), and the hydrophilicity of scaffolds was evaluated by measuring the water contact angle. Rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were seeded onto the scaffolds, and cell survival and genomic DNA concentration were evaluated after 21 days.

The short-time pre-incubation of electrospun silk fibroin scaffolds in the complete medium increased the proliferation of seeded cells because of serum protein adsorption. In addition, long-term pre-incubation of the scaffolds in the complete and serum-free media increased cell proliferation due to the increased hydrophilicity of the scaffold (p<0.05). However, only long-term pre-incubation of the scaffolds in the complete medium had a significant effect on cell survival.

The results demonstrated that long-term pre-incubation of the scaffolds in the complete medium have more profound positive effects on cell survival and proliferation compared to short-term pre-incubation.