Gold nanoparticle-filled biodegradable photopolymer scaffolds induced muscle remodeling: in vitro and in vivo findings Adam Zsedenyi a , Balazs Farkas b , Gaser N. Abdelrasoul b , Ilaria Romano b , Edina Gyukity-Sebestyen c , Katalin Nagy a , Maria Harmati c , Gabriella Dobra c , Sandor Kormondi d , Gabor Decsi a , Istvan Balazs Nemeth e , Alberto Diaspro b , Fernando Brandi b,f , Szabolcs Beke b , Krisztina Buzas a,c,g, ⁎ a University of Szeged, Faculty of Dentistry, Tisza Lajos krt. 64, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary b Department of Nanophysics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy c Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Biological Research Centre, Temesvari krt. 62, H-67268 Szeged, Hungary d University of Szeged, Department of Traumatology, Semmelweis utca 6, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary e University of Szeged, Department of Dermatology and Allergology, Koranyi fasor 6, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary f Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO-CNR), Via Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy g Biological Research Centre Institute of Biochemistry H-6726 Szeged, Temesvari krt. 62. Hungary abstract article info Article history: Received 15 August 2016 Accepted 27 November 2016 Available online xxxx Therapeutic stem cell transplantation bears the promise of new directions in organ and tissue replacement, but a number of its difficulties and perils are also well known. Our goal was to develop a method of transplantation by which the transplanted cells remain confined to the transplantation site and induce favorable processes. With the help of mask-projection excimer laser stereolithography, 3D hybrid nanoscaffolds were fabricated from biode- gradable, photocurable PPF:DEF resin with incorporated gold nanoparticles (Au NPs). The scaffolds were tested in vitro and in vivo in order to find out about their biocompatibility and fitness for our purposes. In vitro, macrophages and mouse autologous adipose stem cells (ASCs) were seeded over the hybrid scaffolds and non-hybrid (with Au NPs) scaffolds for 4 days. The hybrid nanocomposite greater stem cell dispension and stem cell adhesion than PPF scaffolds without Au NPs, but such a difference was not seen in the case of macrophages. In vivo, stem cells, scaffoldings and scaffoldings covered in stem cells were transplanted under the back skin of mice. After 14 days, blood samples were taken and the affected skin area was excised. Cytokine and chemokine profiling did not indicate elevated immunomediators in the sera of experimental animals. Interestingly, the au- tologous-stem-cell-seeded hybrid nanocomposite scaffold induced muscle tissue regeneration after experimen- tal wound generation in vivo. We could not observe such stem cell-induced tissue regeneration when no scaffolding was used. We conclude that PPF:DEF resin nanoscaffolds with incorporated gold nanoparticles offer a safe and efficient al- ternative for the enhancement of local tissue remodeling. The results also support the idea that adipose derived stem cells are an optimal cell type for the purposes of regenerative musculoskeletal tissue engineering. © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction Tissue Engineering (TE) is one of the most progressively developing disciplines [1–3], the development of which is largely stimulated by its biomedical potential. Throughout the last decade, various health issues have been successfully addressed utilizing a TE approach, such as bone regeneration [4] bladder [5] and muscle [6,7] augmentation/repair and also neuroregeneration [8,9]. The utility of polypropylene fumarate (PPF):diethyl fumarate (DEF) (7:3 w/w) biodegradable photocurable polymers in TE has already been widely investigated [10,11]. The results were promising, but further in vivo corroboration is still lacking. Mask projection excimer laser stereolithography (MPExSL) [12] makes it possible to fabricate 3D scaffolds in the nano range, including PPF:DEF nanocomposite scaffolds [13]. Such scaffolds act as a template for cell organization and tissue development in the tissue engineering process, and they are also biodegradable. Furthermore, to augment their efficiency, hybrid scaffolds can be fabricated by incorporating nanoparticles into the polymer resin, as recently reported by our group using [14] and gold [13] nanoparticles. The optical and physico- chemical properties of Au NPs have been intensively investigated, Materials Science and Engineering C xxx (2016) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Szeged, Faculty of Dentistry, Tisza Lajos krt. 64, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary. E-mail address: kr.buzas@gmail.com (K. Buzas). MSC-07178; No of Pages 6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2016.11.124 0928-4931/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science and Engineering C journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msec Please cite this article as: A. Zsedenyi, et al., Gold nanoparticle-filled biodegradable photopolymer scaffolds induced muscle remodeling: in vitro and in vivo findings, Mater. Sci. Eng., C (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2016.11.124