Polysaccharides display poor cell adhesion due to the lack of cell binding domains. This severely limits their applications in regenerative medicine. This study reports novel cross-linked pectin nanofibers with dramatically enhanced cell adhesion. The nanofibers are prepared by at first oxidizing pectin with periodate to generate aldehyde groups and then cross-linking the nanofibers with adipic acid dihydrazide to covalently connect pectin macromolecular chains with adipic acid dihydrazone linkers. The linkers may act as cell binding domains. Compared with traditional Ca²⁺-cross-linked pectin nanofibers, the pectin nanofibers with high oxidation/cross-linking degree exhibit much enhanced cell adhesion capability. Moreover, the cross-linked pectin nanofibers exhibit excellent mechanical strength (with Young’s modulus ∼10 MPa) and much enhanced body degradability (degrade completely in 3 weeks or longer time). The combination of excellent cell adhesion capability, mechanical strength, and body degradability suggests that the cross-linked pectin nanofibers are promising candidates for in vivo applications such as tissue engineering and wound healing. This cross-linking strategy may also be used to improve the cell adhesion capability of other polysaccharide materials.

中文翻译：

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交联的果胶纳米纤维具有增强的细胞粘附性

由于缺乏细胞结合域，多糖显示出差的细胞粘附性。这严重限制了它们在再生医学中的应用。这项研究报告了新型的交联果胶纳米纤维，具有显着增强的细胞粘附性。通过首先将果胶与高碘酸盐氧化以产生醛基，然后将其与己二酸二酰肼交联以将果胶大分子链与己二酸二hydr接头共价连接，来制备纳米纤维。接头可以充当细胞结合域。与传统的Ca ²⁺相比-交联的果胶纳米纤维，具有高氧化/交联度的果胶纳米纤维表现出大大增强的细胞粘附能力。此外，交联的果胶纳米纤维表现出优异的机械强度（杨氏模量约为10 MPa），并具有更高的机体降解能力（在3周或更长时间内完全降解）。优异的细胞粘附能力，机械强度和身体可降解性相结合，表明交联的果胶纳米纤维有望用于体内应用，如组织工程和伤口愈合。该交联策略还可以用于改善其他多糖材料的细胞粘附能力。