Abstract
The data showed how gelatin hydrogel and silk fibroin scaffolds could facilitate the growth of human Mesenchymal Stem Cells (hMSC). Gelatin hydrogel and silk fibroin are biodegradable materials. Gelatin hydrogel already has many uses in the medical field, especially in tissue engineering, but silk fibroin scaffold, which is made from the cocoon of silkworm by salt leaching, its role in facilitating growth of hMSC still needs to be proven. Data was obtained by characterization of hMSC, then growing hMSC on silk fibroin scaffolds with pore sizes of ±500 μm and ±900 μm and on gelatin hydrogel scaffolds as control. Testing was performed by counting cell growth on days 1, 3, 5, 7 and 14 with the MTT cytotoxicity assay protocol. The morphology of hMSC that grew on gelatin and silk fibroin scaffolds was observed with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) on day 3. Characterization of the hMSC showed that it fulfilled the requirements of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT). The water content of the gelatin hydrogel scaffold was higher than the silk fibroin scaffold. Biocompatibility testing showed that the gelatin hydrogel scaffold could support cell growth until day 7, then decreased on day 14 compared to the silk fibroin scaffold based on absorbance on the MTT cytotoxicity assay, while growth on silk fibroin scaffold with pore size 833 ± 147 μm was consistently higher than on pore size 462 ± 66 μm from day 1 to day 14. Cell binding to the silk fibroin was proven from SEM observation.