Bacterial cellulose nanofiber reinforced poly(glycerol-sebacate) biomimetic matrix for 3D cell culture

Conventional two-dimensional (2D) cell culture is dramatically different from three-dimensional (3D) in vivo environment cells experience in vivo. Here, a new kind of 3D cell culture with a biomimetic structure to natural extracellular matrix (ECM) based on bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers and poly(glycerol-sebacate) (PGS) was designed. The 3D PGS/BC cell culture shows a porous and nanofibrous structure which was formed through biosynthesis of nanofibers secreted by G. xylinus on the porous PGS. The mechanical properties of PGS were significantly enhanced by the incorporation of BC nanofibers, which improved sample handling for application. L929 mouse fibroblasts and HUVECs were used as model cells to evaluate the potential ability of PGS/BC as cell culture. The results show that 3D PGS/BC promotes cell growth by facilitating cell proliferation, cell morphology and exhibit comparable performance to commercial Alvetex® cell culture. The BC nanofibers reinforced PGS/BC cell culture provides a 3D biomimetic structure to ECM which is beneficial to cellular adhesion and interaction. It is believed that the degradable PGS/BC has great potential applications for cell culture or tissue engineering scaffold.