Regulation of cellular behaviors of fibroblasts related to wound healing by sol–gel derived bioactive glass particles

Sol-gel derived bioactive glass (BG) holds great potential in the application of skin repair. However, the specific regulation of BG on skin cells is still unclear and demands more investigation. Herein, we synthesized sol-gel derived BGs with different compositions (60S, 70S, 80S, and 90S) and found 90S BGs (90 mol % SiO2 , 6 mol % CaO, 4 mol % P2 O5 ) exhibited the best supportiveness for the proliferation of normal human foreskin fibroblasts. Thus, 90S BG particles were used as a model to systematically study the wound healing related cellular response of fibroblasts to BGs. Time-lapse imaging revealed a promoted fibroblast motility stimulated by 90S BG particles. Results on the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) related genes illustrated that 90S BG particles modulated the synthesis capacity for critical ECM molecules including type I collagen, type III collagen, fibronectin, and tenascin-C. Moreover, the myofibroblastic differentiation of fibroblasts was greatly inhibited by 90S BG particles. Further analysis on the intracellular signaling pathways demonstrated that 90S BG particles down-regulated the collagen synthesis and fibroblast-to-myofibroblast differentiation via TGF-β1-Smad2 signaling, evidenced by the decreased expression levels of TGF-β receptor I and its downstream effector Smad2. Our study provided a further understanding of the specific regulation of 90S BG particles on fibroblasts, which may guide the future design of BG based wound dressing and benefit the clinical application of BG particles in skin repair. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2420-2429, 2016.