Center for Nanotechnology and Advanced Biomaterials (CeNTAB), School of Chemical and Biotechnology, SASTRA University, Thanjavur 613 401, India.
J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater. 2010 Jul;94(1):264-72. doi: 10.1002/jbm.b.31651.
Tissue engineering scaffolds produced by electrospinning feature a structural similarity to the natural extracellular matrix. Polymer blending is one of the effective methods to provide new and desirable biocomposites for tissue engineering applications. In this study chitosan was blended with gelatin and the effect of processing parameters of electrospinning and the solution properties of the polymer on the morphology of the fibers obtained were investigated. The morphology of the electrospun chitosan, gelatin and the chitosan-gelatin blend were characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The miscibility of the blend was determined using a SEM, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) Fourier transform Infrared spectrometer (FTIR). Further the tensile properties of the blend nanofibers were studied and compared with chitosan and gelatin fibers. In this study we have been able to electrospin defect-free chitosan, gelatin and chitosan-gelatin blend nanofibers with smooth morphology and diameter ranging from 120 to 200 nm, 100 to 150 nm, and 120-220 nm, respectively by optimizing the process and solution parameters. Chitosan and gelatin formed completely miscible blends as evidenced from DSC and FTIR measurements. The tensile strength of the chitosan-gelatin blend nanofibers (37.91 +/- 4.42 MPa) was significantly higher than the gelatin nanofibers (7.23 +/- 1.15 MPa) (p < 0.05) and comparable with that of normal human skin. Thus the novel chitosan-gelatin blend nanofiber system has potential application in skin regeneration.
静电纺丝制备的组织工程支架具有与天然细胞外基质相似的结构。聚合物共混是为组织工程应用提供新型和理想的生物复合材料的有效方法之一。在这项研究中，壳聚糖与明胶共混，研究了静电纺丝的加工参数和聚合物溶液性质对所得纤维形态的影响。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）对静电纺丝的壳聚糖、明胶和壳聚糖-明胶共混物的形态进行了表征。通过 SEM 和差示扫描量热法（DSC）傅里叶变换红外光谱仪（FTIR）确定了共混物的混溶性。进一步研究了共混物纳米纤维的拉伸性能，并与壳聚糖和明胶纤维进行了比较。在这项研究中，我们能够通过优化工艺和溶液参数，静电纺丝无缺陷的壳聚糖、明胶和壳聚糖-明胶共混纳米纤维，其形态光滑，直径分别为 120-200nm、100-150nm 和 120-220nm。DSC 和 FTIR 测量表明，壳聚糖和明胶形成完全混溶的共混物。壳聚糖-明胶共混纳米纤维的拉伸强度（37.91±4.42MPa）明显高于明胶纳米纤维（7.23±1.15MPa）（p<0.05），与正常人体皮肤相当。因此，新型壳聚糖-明胶共混纳米纤维体系在皮肤再生中有潜在的应用。
