Background:

Stem cell therapy represents a good alternative therapy to the degenerated or damaged tissue. Stem cells have been used solely or in combination with a scaffold. The latter offers a structural advantage as it allows the cells to grow in 3 Dimensional (3-D) conditions mimicking the in vivo environments. We have previously reported the development of a 3-D Arginyl-glycyl-aspartic acid (RGD)-conjugated cotton-based scaffold for the growth and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The scaffold allowed the adhesion of the MSCs and their proliferation without compromising their viability and their stem cell markers. In depth analysis of the molecular changes in the MSCs adhering to the cotton fibers will result in better therapy. Our work aims at identifying the molecular events happening in growing MSCs on the cotton-RGD conjugated-based scaffold through their gene expression profiles. In this study we have seeded MSCs with and without scaffold for 48 hours. Celle were collected for RNA, cDNA synthesis and whole transcriptomic analysis run on both populations. Results Our analysis revealed several up-regulated and down-regulated differently expressed genes in the MSCs adhering to the scaffold compared to the control cells. Gene ontology analysis identified enriched biological processes, molecular functions, pathway and protein-protein interaction in up-regulated and down-regulated genes. Conclusions Our data suggest that the scaffold might have enhanced potential to induce osteogenesis in the MSCs. The results also suggest that the scaffold does not induce oxidative stress, inflammation and aging of the MSCs. Our findings provide useful data for the MSCs applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.