ABSTRACT
In this study, we have developed a microporous poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffold that combines a continuous release property and a three-dimensional (3D) scaffolding technique for the precise and efficient formation of endothelial cell lineage from embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Eight PLGA scaffolds (14.29%, 16.67%, 20% and 25% concentrations of PLGA solutions) mixed with two crystal sizes of sodium chloride (NaCl) were fabricated by leaching. Then, vascular endothelial cell conditioned medium (ECCM) mixed with gelatin was embedded into the scaffold for culturing of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). The 14.29% PLGA scaffolds fabricated using non-ground NaCl particles (NG-PLGA) and the 25% PLGA containing scaffolds fabricated using ground NaCl particles (G-PLGA) possessed minimum and maximum moisture content and bovine serum albumin (BSA) content properties, respectively. These two groups of scaffolds were used for future experiments in this study. Cell culture results demonstrated that the proposed porous scaffolds without growth factors were sufficient to induce mouse ESCs to differentiate into endothelial-like cells in the early culture stages, and combined with embedded ECCM could provide a long-term inducing system for ESC differentiation.
