The development of tendon-biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds with mesenchymal stem cells may represent a promising strategy to improve the unsatisfactory outcomes of traditional treatments in tendon repair. In the present study, the nanofibrous scaffolds comprised of poly(p-dioxanone) (PPDO) and silk fibroin (SF) composites were fabricated by using electrospinning technique and subsequent thermal ethanol treatment. The PPDO/SF composite scaffolds presented parallel fiber arrangement with crimped features and nonlinear mechanical properties, which mimic the structure-function relationship of native tendon tissue mechanics. We demonstrated that the fiber crimp degree and mechanical properties of as-prepared PPDO/SF wavy nanofibrous scaffolds (WNSs) could be tunable by adjusting the mass ratio of PPDO/SF. The biological tests revealed that the addition of SF obviously promoted the cell adhesion, proliferation, and phenotypic maintenance of human tenocytes on the WNSs. A preliminary study on the subcutaneous implantation showed that the PPDO/SF WNSs notably decreased the inflammatory response compared with pure PPDO WNSs. More importantly, a combination of growth factor induction and mechanical stimulation was found to notably enhance the tenogenic differentiation of human adipose derived mesenchymal stem cells on the PPDO/SF WNSs by upregulating the expressions of tendon-associated protein and gene markers. Overall, this study demonstrated that our PPDO/SF WNSs could provide a beneficial microenvironment for various cell activities, making them an attractive candidate for tendon tissue engineering research.

具有间充质干细胞的肌腱仿生纳米纤维支架的开发可能代表一种有希望的策略，以改善传统疗法在肌腱修复中的令人满意的结果。在本研究中，通过使用静电纺丝技术和随后的热乙醇处理，制备了由聚对二氧杂环己酮（PPDO）和丝素蛋白（SF）复合材料组成的纳米纤维支架。PPDO / SF复合支架呈现出具有卷曲特征和非线性机械性能的平行纤维排列，模仿了天然肌腱组织力学的结构-功能关系。我们证明，通过调节PPDO / SF的质量比，可以制备出PPDO / SF波浪状纳米纤维支架（WNSs）的纤维卷曲度和机械性能。生物学测试表明，添加SF明显促进了WNSs上人肌腱细胞的细胞粘附，增殖和表型维持。对皮下植入的初步研究表明，与纯PPDO WNS相比，PPDO / SF WNS显着降低了炎症反应。更重要的是，发现生长因子诱导和机械刺激相结合可通过上调肌腱相关蛋白和基因标志物的表达来显着增强PPDO / SF WNS上人脂肪来源的间充质干细胞的肌腱分化。总的来说，这项研究表明我们的PPDO / SF WNS可以为各种细胞活动提供有益的微环境，使其成为腱组织工程研究的有吸引力的候选者。