Mechanical reinforcement of urinary bladder matrix by electrospun polycaprolactone nanofibers

For a successful repair and reconstruction of bladder tissue, fabrication of scaffolds with proper biochemical and biomechanical characteristics is necessary. Decellularized bladder tissue has been proposed in previous studies as a gold standard material for scaffold fabrication. However, weak mechanical properties of such a loadbearing tissue has remained a challenge. Incorporation of both biological and synthetic materials has been known as an effective strategy for improving mechanical and biological properties of the scaffolds. In the present work, a simple process was developed to fabricate hybrid hydrogel scaffolds with a biomimetic architecture from the natural urinary bladder extracellular matrix (ECM) and synthetic polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers in order to obtain a scaffold with optimized mechanical and biological properties for bladder tissue engineering. To this end, the ECM gel was derived from rat bladder, and the electrospun PCL nanofibers were embedded within the gel, followed by incubating the composite to shape the hybrid hydrogel. These reinforced scaffolds showed more structural integrity and mechanical stability. The introduced concept of nanofiber-reinforced ECM can be applied as a promising platform in engineering of bladder or other load-bearing soft tissues.