Cytocompatibility and osteogenic differentiation of stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth with cotton cellulose nanofibers for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are natural polymers with physical-chemical properties that make them very attractive for modulating stem cell differentiation, a crucial step in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Although cellulose is cytocompatible, when materials are in nanoscale, they become more reactive, needing to evaluate its potential toxic effect to ensure safe application. This study aimed to investigate the cytocompatibility of cotton CNF and its differentiation capacity induction on stem cells from human exfoliated deciduous teeth. First, the cotton CNF was characterized. Then, the cytocompatibility and the osteogenic differentiation induced by cotton CNF were examined. The results revealed that cotton CNFs have about 6-18 nm diameters, and the zeta potential was -10 mV. Despite gene expression alteration, the cotton CNF shows good cytocompatibility. The cotton CNF induced an increase in phosphatase alkaline activity and extracellular matrix mineralization. The results indicate that cotton CNF has good cytocompatibility and can promote cell differentiation without using chemical inducers, showing great potential as a new differentiation inductor for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.