Decellularization and characterization of leek: A Potential cellulose-based biomaterial

The main purpose of tissue engineering is to regenerate damaged tissues by using three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds, which mimic the in vivo cellular milieu. Currently scaffolds are obtained from human donors or animal products however, the need exceeds the availability. Recently, cellulose-based scaffolds, which are easily attainable biomaterials in nature, have been studied in terms of comptaibility with various mammalian cell lines. These studies have shown that plant-derived scaffolds have great potential for numerous tissue-engineering applications such as wound healing, cardiac and neural tissue engineering. In this study, leek was chosen as a model plant tissue due to its structural morphology (interconnected and elongated channel like structural morphology) as a potential 3D scaffold for tissue engineering applications. Decellularization was performed with the treatment of detergent-like solution. The degree of residual cell content was evaluated by DNA and protein quantification as well as immunostaining. Chemical and mechanical properties were tested for both native and decellularized leek samples in order to investigate the effect of decellularization process on the structure. Swelling, degradation and protein adsorption behavior of decellularized leek samples were also studied. SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cell line was used for mammalian cell culture studies. Prior to cell seeding, decellularized leek samples were modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) and coated with graphene oxide (GO) in order to enhance cell adhesion. MTT cell viability assay and SEM imaging were performed to observe the cell attachment and proliferation. Prepared decellularized leek tissues are expected to be candidate cellulose based scaffolds for tissue engineering applications both in vitro and in vivo conditions in future studies.