Hi all,
Does anyone have any experience using papain digests of 3D scaffolds followed by Hoechst staining? It is one of the more popular methods I've seen in literature especially for collagen-based scaffolds. I have just completed my own work and the DNA amounts are surprisingly low at 70-100ng/scaffold post 7 days of culture!
I used the general parameters I've seen by most; 125ug/mL Papain in its suitable activation buffer, 60 degrees, 18 hours.
Alongside this I ran an alamarBlue (AB) assay prior to the digest - the results from this would suggest I had my best cell seeding efficiency to date as I had significantly increased reduction of AB at Day 1 vs. previous seeding procedures. So I'm not sure why I'm achieving such low DNA amounts vs. similar attempts by others who achieve 1-2ug +/scaffold after several days culture.
Some papers have used 24 hour digestion periods so perhaps that will assists but if anyone has any experience let me know.
Kind Regards,
John.