ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Owing to the advantages of low sensitization and natural three-dimensional structure, good biocompatibility and cell affinity, acellular heart scaffold materials are of great current interest in cardiac tissue engineering. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cytocompatibility of an acellular heart scaffold of neonatal rats. METHODS: In order to construct the seed cell-scaffold complex, passage 3 bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) of Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats were cultured with an acellular heart scaffold of Sprague-Dawley neonatal rats for 7 and 14 days. Hematoxylin eosin staining and scanning electron microscopy were used to observe the growth of BMSCs in the scaffold. The cell-scaffold complex was induced in myocardial tissue lysate for 14 days. BMSCs with planar orientation differentiation for 14 and 20 days were used as control group. RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of myosin heavy chain α-MHC and zinc finger transcription factor GATA-4 in BMSCs. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) Hematoxylin-eosin staining showed the acellular heart scaffold contained a large number of eosinophilic fibrous structures, and the cell number of cell-scaffold complex after co-culture for 14 days was higher than that after co-culture for 7 days. Under the scanning electron microscope, a large amount of cells adhered to the fiber surface of the acellular scaffold at 14 days of co-culture. (2) BMSCs with planar orientation differentiation for 14 and 20 days had the bamboo-like and myotube-like structures. In the cell-scaffold complex with planar orientation differentiation for 14 days, the expression of α-MHC and GATA-4 could be detected, and their expression levels fulfilled the requirement for the presence of bamboo-like cells and myotube-like structure. These results indicate that the acellular heart scaffold exhibits good cytocompatibility.