The Development And Characterization Of Heparin-Conjugated Fibrin Hydrogel With Incapsulated Mesenchimal Stem Cells And Growth Factors
Currently, one of the major focuses in regenerative medicine is the development and implementation into practice of composite biomaterials with chondro- and osteoinductive properties, which include human stem cells and growth factors. Heparin-conjugated fibrinogen was obtained using the carbodiimide method, which was further used to create heparin-conjugated fibrin hydrogels (HCFH). As a result of this work, two types of HCFH were obtained: a hydrogel with encapsulated mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and a hydrogel with TGF-β1 and BMP-4 growth factors. It has been found that synovial MSCs retain viability after encapsulation in HCFH, which indicates that the developed hydrogel is biocompatible and does not have toxic effect to the cells. The results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay on the kinetics of BMP-4 and TGF-β1 release from HCFH showed that the developed hydrogel is able to retain BMP-4 and TGF-β1. The kinetics of release from HCFH into phosphate buffer was significantly slower compared to fibrin hydrogel.