Preparation of gallic acid-containing PCL/gelatine scaffolds as an efficient drug delivery system for growth and proliferation of human stem cells

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine play a prominent role in the growth and proliferation of stem cells. Fabricating scaffold-based drug delivery systems (DDS) has opened a new gate for having efficient DDS and a platform for cell growth. The electrospun poly ε-caprolactone-gelatin (PCL-Gel or PG) nanofibers loaded with various concentrations of gallic acid (GA) (1% w/w (PGG1), 3% w/w (PGG3), 5%w/w (PGG5), 10% w/w (PGG10), and 20% w/w (PGG20)) were efficiently fabricated as efficient scaffolds for inducing the growth and proliferation of hWJ-MSCs. FT-IR, XRD, FE-SEM, tensile test, and water contact angle (WCA) were applied to study the scaffolds. The FT-IR and XRD techniques effectively confirmed the appropriate structure of scaffolds, and FE-SEM demonstrated the fabrication of nanofibrous scaffolds with average diameter ranges of 220.73 nm, 206 nm, 211.35 nm, 213.15 nm, 241.61 nm, and 298.94 nm for PG, PGG1, PGG3, PGG5, PGG10, and PGG20 scaffolds, respectively. Based on the results, PGG5 was shown to have appropriate mechanical property, average diameter, smooth morphology, better hydrophilicity, and favorable encapsulation efficiency. The controlled bioactive release (about 40% within a day) was measured for PGG5 using UV–Vis spectrophotometry. Next, the MTT test exhibited approximately 120.58% (after three days), 147.26% (after five days), and 153.77% (after seven days) of cell viabilities after treatment with GA150 (~ PGG5), while it was 218.02%, 219.31%, and PGG5 at the same conditions, respectively.