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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Using Plant Proteins to Develop Composite Scaffolds

for Cell Culture Applications

Linzhi Jing , Jie Sun *, Hang Liu , Xiang Wang , Dejian Huang *
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1 National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China
2 Department of Food Science and Technology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
3 Department of Mechatronics and Robotics, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China
Abstract: Electrohydrodynamic printing (EHDP) is capable of fabricating scaffolds that consist of micro/nano scale
orientated fibers for three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models and drug screening applications. One of the major hurdles
that limit the widespread application of EHDP is the lack of diverse biomaterial inks with appropriate printability and desired
mechanical and biological properties. In this work, we blended plant proteins with synthetic biopolymer poly(ε-caprolactone)
(PCL) to develop composite biomaterial inks, such as PCL/gliadin and PCL/zein for scaffold fabrication through EHDP. The
tensile test results showed that the composite materials with a relatively small amount of plant protein portions, such as PCL/
gliadin-10 and PCL/zein-10, can significantly improve tensile properties of the fabricated scaffolds such as Young’s modulus
and yield stress. These scaffolds were further evaluated by culturing mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) cells and proven
to enhance cell adhesion and proliferation, apart from temporary inhibition effects for PCL/gliadin-20 scaffold at the initial
growth stage. After these plant protein nanoparticles were gradually released into culture medium, the generated nanoporous
structures on the scaffold fiber surfaces became favorable for cellular attachment, migration, and proliferation. As competent
candidates that regulate cell behaviors in 3D microenvironment, such composite scaffolds manifest a great potential in drug
screening and 3D in vitro model development.

Keywords: Composite biomaterials ink; Electrohydrodynamics; Additive manufacturing

*Correspondence to: Jie Sun, Mechatronics and Robotics, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China;
jie.sun@xjtlu.edu.cn. Dejian Huang, Department of Food Science and Technology, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543,
Singapore; fsthdj@nus.edu.sg
Received: June 16, 2020; Accepted: September 11, 2020; Published Online: October 30, 2020

Citation: Jing L, Sun J, Liu H, et al., 2021, Using Plant Proteins to Develop Composite Scaffolds for Cell Culture Applications.
Int J Bioprint, 7(1):298. http://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v7i1.298

1. Introduction substrate . A 3D reconstituted basement membrane can
[3]
prompt mammary epithelial cells to self-assemble into
Three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds have been developed spherical structures with a central lumen approximating
to facilitate cell culture to circulate nutrition and to normal mammary acini . The metabolic rates of
[4]
remove metabolic waste . Such scaffolds have drawn human breast cancer grown on the 3D chitosan scaffold
[1]
an intensive attention in the fields of cell biology, tissue approximated to those in vivo tumors . In 3D cell
[5]
engineering, and drug discovery since the produced 3D culture, scaffolds’ physical and chemical properties
in vitro models can closely mimic the cellular states in can significantly influence cell adhesion, migration,
physiological environment and enhance cell migration, and differentiation. These properties can be detected
proliferation, and functionalities . For example, 3D by the adhesion proteins on the cell membrane and
[2]
collagen gel structure can support fibroblasts to elongate transmitted into downstream biochemical signals .
[6]
themselves to spindle shape, migrate, and invade Thus, understanding cell-scaffold interaction is crucial
similar to in vivo observation, whereas they developed for understanding fundamental cellular behaviors and
prominent stress fibers and became immobile in 2D glass designing new biomaterial inks.

© 2020 Jing, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the
original work is properly cited.
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