Smart electrospun nanofibers containing PCL/gelatin/graphene oxide for application in nerve tissue engineering.

Currently graphene-doped electrospun scaffolds have been a matter of great interest to be exploited in biomedical fields such as tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of graphene on biological properties of PCL/gelatin nanofibrous mats. SEM analysis was conducted to investigate the morphology of the electrospun nanofibers. The in-vitro cellular proliferation of PC12 cells on nanofibrous web was also investigated. Electrospun PCL/gelatin/graphene nanofibrous mats exhibited 99% antibacterial properties against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Drug release studies indicated that the π-π stacking interaction between TCH and graphene has led to the far better controlled release of TCH from electrospun PCL/gelatin/graphene compared to PCL/gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds. These superior properties along with an improvement in hydrophilicity and biodegradation features has made the nanofibers a promising candidate to be used as electrically conductive scaffolds in neural tissue engineering as well as controlled drug delivery.

Fabrication and characterization of PVA/Gum tragacanth/PCL hybrid nanofibrous scaffolds for skin substitutes.

In this work three dimensional biodegradable nanofiberous scaffolds containing poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and gum tragacanth (GT) were successfully fabricated through two nozzles electrospinning process. For this purpose, PVA/GT blend (Blend: B) solution (60:40wt%) was injected from one syringe and poly(ε-caprolactone) solution from the other one. Presence of PVA and PCL in the formulation improved the electrospinning process of GT solution and mechanical properties of the fabricated nanofibers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed uniform PVA/GT-PCL blend-hybrid (Blend-Hybrid: B-H) nanofibers with the diameter ranging about 132±27nm. Hybrid nanofibers were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests. The antibacterial activities of the PVA/GT-PCL (B-H) nanofibers were conducted against Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and results indicated that the hybrid nanofibers were 95.19% antibacterial against S. aureus bacterium. NIH 3T3 fibroblast cells growth and MTT assay were carried out on the scaffolds. Hydrophilicity nature, favorable mechanical properties of the fabricated hybrid nanofibers, along with their structure in biological media, biocompatibility, as well as antibacterial property indicate scaffolds prepared are suitable for tissue engineering.