Multifunctional scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

The aim of this project was to develop two multifunctional alginate-based hydrogel film loaded with either gold or iron oxide nanoparticles, both functionalized with a peptidic RGD/LF platform in order to use them as scaffolds for tissue engineering. This strategy takes advantage of the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of alginate. Thus, bioactivity is introduced by thenanoparticles and theRGD and LF peptides, which have the capacity to promote cells adhesion and prevent bacterial infection respectively. To this end, this project consists in the preparation of the nanoparticles and their functionalization with anRGD/LF peptide and the incorporation of the nanoparticles into alginate hydrogels. The composite hydrogels were analyzed using several physicochemical techniques such as UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy or Scanning Electron Microscopy. These techniques served to characterize the nanoparticles and the morphology of the hydrogel. Moreover, bacterial and cellular assays were performed to study the antibacterial and cells adhesive properties of the scaffolds.