Fabrication of Gelatin Fibrous Microspheres as a Next-generation Cell Carrier for Tissue Regeneration

Injectable cell carriers offer great prospects in the field of tissue engineering and are well-suited to fill in the irregular shape of defects more conveniently than other scaffolds facilitating cell delivery without any critical invasive procedure leading to regeneration. To overcome the limitations, we have fabricated injectable nanofibrous gelatin microspheres as a next-generation injectable cell carrier using Emulsion Technique followed by Thermal Induce Phase Separation Technique (TIPS). The effect of various process parameters and biological evaluation was performed using stem cells.The fabricated gelatin microsphere possesses microporous architecture resembling the native extracellular matrix as revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). They exhibit superior cell adhesion, proliferation and stimulate the growth of hBMSCs compared to non-nanofibrous (solid) and commercially available (Cytodex-3) microspheres. Reported nanofibrous gelatin microspheres are non-toxic, facile, economical and do not require any specialized instruments for fabrication. All out-turns stipulate that nanofibrous gelatin microspheres are an eminent choice as injectable cell carriers for tissue regeneration.