The development of GelMA based hydrogels combined with acellular small intestinal submucosa for peripheral nerve injuries

Peripheral nerve injuries are a major public health concern. The slow self-regeneration of the complex structure of the peripheral nervous system significantly impacts functional recovery. For this reason, studies on nerve tissue engineering for peripheral nerve repair are critical. Here, we constructed a gelMA-based decellularized SIS hybrid construct to promote functional regeneration after peripheral nerve injury. A supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) decellularization protocol was developed for bovine small intestinal submucosa (SIS) decellularization. A conventional method involving the combinations of physical, chemical, and enzymatic treatments was used for evaluating the efficiency of the scCO2 technology for SIS decellularization. The efficiency of decellularization methods was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative analyses. In this regard, it was shown that the scCO2 technology was an efficient and high-yielding method for the decellularization of SIS. Then, SIS was incubated with gelMA solutions to obtain hybrid hydrogels. FT-IR and SEM were used to prove the success of hybrid tissue scaffold synthesis as well as to investigate structural changes. The water retention capacity, degradation properties and mechanical strength of the hybrid scaffolds were investigated and compared with the acellular SIS. Lastly the ability of hybrid membranes to induce neural cell adhesion and proliferation was evaluated via in vitro cell culture of Schwann cells in terms of cell viability, proliferation and morphological changes.