Development of Recombinant Human Collagen-Based Porous Scaffolds for Skin Tissue Engineering: Enhanced Mechanical Strength and Biocompatibility

Skin tissue engineering scaffolds should possess key properties such as porosity, degradability, durability, and biocompatibility to effectively facilitate skin cell adhesion and growth. In this study, recombinant human collagen (RHC) was used to fabricate porous scaffolds via freeze-drying, offering an alternative to animal-derived collagen where bovine collagen (BC)-based scaffolds were also prepared for comparison. The internal morphology of the RHC scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the pore size ranged from 68.39 to 117.52 µm. The results from compression and fatigue tests showed that the mechanical strength and durability of RHC scaffolds could be tailored by adjusting the RHC concentration, and the maximum compressive modulus reached to 0.003 MPa, which is comparable to that of BC scaffolds. The degradation test illustrated that the RHC scaffolds had a slower degradation rate compared to BC scaffolds. Finally, the biocompatibilities of the porous scaffolds were studied by seeding and culturing the human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in samples. The fluorescent images and Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay revealed RHC porous scaffolds were non-cytotoxic and supported the attachment as well as the proliferation of the seeded cells. Overall, the results demonstrated that RHC-based scaffolds exhibited adequate mechanical strength, ideal biodegradability, and exceptional biocompatibility, making them highly suitable for skin-tissue-engineering applications.