Human placental extract incorporated PLGA-PHB nanofibers enhances cardiomyocyte differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells

Dysfunctional heart muscles are one of the main causes of heart failure or lack of proper heart function. Tissue engineering has tried to find a way to repair damaged cardiac muscle tissues by introducing biologically active scaffolds. In the present study, human placenta extract (PE) was used along with poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) to make a bioactive scaffold using electrospinning method. Constructed PLGA-PHB and PLGA-PHB-PE nanofibers characterized using SEM, degradation, water absorption, protein adsorption, cell attachment, non-toxicity and mechanical assays. After that cardiogenic differentiation potential of the human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) was investigated while cultured on the constructed nanofibers and tissue culture polystyrene. Characterization results revealed that biological behavior of the PLGA-PHB nanofibers was improved significantly after blending with PE. Furthermore, the highest expression level of cardiomyocyte-related genes, including GATA4, MyoD, Troponin T and α-MHC, and protein (β-Tubulin) was detected in the MSCs cultured on the PLGA-PHB-PE nanofibers compared to the MSCs cultured on PLGA-PHB and TCPS groups. According to the results, it can be concluded that PE incorporated PLGA-PHB nanofibers has great potential to promote cardiomyogenic differentiation of MSCs and it can be used in cardiac tissue engineering to repair cardiac muscle.