Poly(amino acid)‐based fibrous scaffolds modified with surface‐pendant peptides for cartilage tissue engineering

In this study, fibrous scaffolds based on poly(γ‐benzyl‐l ‐glutamate) (PBLG) were investigated in terms of the chondrogenic differentiation potential of human tooth germ stem cells (HTGSCs). Through the solution‐assisted bonding of the fibres, fully connected scaffolds with pore sizes in the range 20–400 µm were prepared. Biomimetic modification of the PBLG scaffolds was achieved by a two‐step reaction procedure: first, aminolysis of the PBLG fibres’ surface layers was performed, which resulted in an increase in the hydrophilicity of the fibrous scaffolds after the introduction of N⁵‐hydroxyethyl‐l ‐glutamine units; and second, modification with the short peptide sequence azidopentanoyl–GGGRGDSGGGY–NH₂, using the 'click' reaction on the previously modified scaffold with 2‐propynyl side‐chains, was performed. Radio‐assay of the ¹²⁵I‐labelled peptide was used to evaluate the RGD density in the fibrous scaffolds (which varied in the range 10^–3–10 pm /cm²). All the PBLG scaffolds, especially with density 90 ± 20 fm /cm² and 200 ± 100 fm /cm² RGD, were found to be potentially suitable for growth and chondrogenic differentiation of HTGSCs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.