Abstract
Hydrogels have been increasingly applied in tissue regeneration and drug delivery systems (DDS). In this study, the capacity of valproic acid (Val) encapsulated within hybrid of alginate (Alg)-chitosan (Cs) (Alg-Cs) hydrogel containing Cs nanoparticle (Npch) with/without human endometrial stem cells (hEnSC) was initially examined for regeneration of spinal cord injury (SCI). To evaluate the stability of the synthesized hydrogels zeta potential necessary measurements were made. Physicochemically, the developed hydrogels were evaluated using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The physical properties including degradation rate, swelling ability, and tunability of the synthesized hydrogels were studied. To evaluate the nerve regeneration ability of the synthesized hydrogels, 35 Sprague-Dawley rats were undergone SCI. The spinal cords were exposed using laminectomy in T9-T10 area and the hemi-section SCI model was made. The rats were then randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 7) including, Alg-Cs/Npch, Alg-Cs/Npch/hEnSCs, Alg-Cs/Npch/Val, and Alg-Cs/Npch/hEnScs/Val, and the control groups without any intervention. The FTIR spectra showed band frequencies and assignments of Val, Alg-Cs, and alginate. Nanoparticles were formulated with a mean diameter of 187 and 210 nm, for Val/Alg-Cs and Alg-Cs, respectively. The loading of Val into Alg-Cs led to its reduced size by about 40 nm. The Cs-Npch/Val hydrogels degraded faster than the Alg-Cs-/Npch/Val hydrogel specifically in extended time of incubation. A higher swelling capacity of Alg-Cs/Npch hydrogel, compared to Cs/Npch/Val and Alg-Cs/Npch/Val hydrogels, was found. The Cs-Npch/Val hydrogels degraded faster than Alg-Cs-/Npch/Val hydrogel. The Alg-Cs/Npch/hEnSCs/Val could regenerate the damaged nerve fibers and histologically prevent the SCI-induced vacuolization spaces. The prepared Alg-Cs/Npch/Val could be a suitable polymeric carrier for taurine drugs as bioactive substrate in nerve tissue engineering (NTE) and DDS.