Background. The design of tendon biomimetic electrospun fleece with Amniotic Epithelial Stem Cells (AECs) that have shown a high tenogenic attitude may represent an alternative strategy to overcome the unsatisfactory results of conventional treatments in tendon regeneration. Methods. In this study, we evaluated AEC-engineered electrospun poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) fleeces with highly aligned fibers (ha-PLGA) that mimic tendon extracellular matrix, their biocompatibility, and differentiation towards the tenogenic lineage. PLGA fleeces with randomly distributed fibers (rd-PLGA) were generated as control. Results. Optimal cell infiltration and biocompatibility with both PLGA fleeces were shown. However, only ha-PLGA fleeces committed AECs towards an Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) after 48 h culture, inducing their cellular elongation along the fibers' axis and the upregulation of mesenchymal markers. AECs further differentiated towards tenogenic lineage as confirmed by the up-regulation of tendon-related genes and Collagen Type 1 (COL1) protein expression that, after 28 days culture, appeared extracellularly distributed along the direction of ha-PLGA fibers. Moreover, long-term co-cultures of AEC-ha-PLGA bio-hybrids with fetal tendon explants significantly accelerated of half time AEC tenogenic differentiation compared to ha-PLGA fleeces cultured only with AECs. Conclusions. The fabricated tendon biomimetic ha-PLGA fleeces induce AEC tenogenesis through an early EMT, providing a potential tendon substitute for tendon engineering research.
Keywords: PLGA; aligned fibers; amniotic epithelial stem cells; biomimetic scaffold; electrospinning; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; tendon tissue engineering; tenogenic differentiation.