Electrospun thymosin Beta-4 loaded PLGA/PLA nanofiber/ microfiber hybrid yarns for tendon tissue engineering application

Microfiber yarns (MY) have been widely employed to construct tendon tissue grafts. However, suboptimal ultrastructure and inappropriate environments for cell interactions limit their clinical application. Herein, we designed a modified electrospinning device to coat poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) PLGA nanofibers onto polylactic acid (PLA) MY to generate PLGA/PLA hybrid yarns (HY), which had a well-aligned nanofibrous structure, resembling the ultrastructure of native tendon tissues and showed enhanced failure load compared to PLA MY. PLGA/PLA HY significantly improved the growth, proliferation, and tendon-specific gene expressions of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells (HADMSC) compared to PLA MY. Moreover, thymosin beta-4 (Tβ4) loaded PLGA/PLA HY presented a sustained drug release manner for 28 days and showed an additive effect on promoting HADMSC migration, proliferation, and tenogenic differentiation. Collectively, the combination of Tβ4 with the nano-topography of PLGA/PLA HY might be an efficient strategy to promote tenogenesis of adult stem cells for tendon tissue engineering.