Amrita Centre for Nanosciences & Molecular Medicine, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Kochi, India.
Biomed Mater. 2012 Dec;7(6):065001. doi: 10.1088/1748-6041/7/6/065001. Epub 2012 Oct 9.
Nanofibrous semi-synthetic polymeric nanocomposite scaffolds were engineered by incorporating a maximum of 15 wt% biopolymeric gelatin nanoparticles (nGs) into the synthetic polymer poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) prior to electrospinning. The effect of nGs in altering the physico-chemical properties, cell material interaction and biodegradability of the scaffolds was evaluated. Experimental results showed that the inherent hydrophobicity of PCL scaffolds remained unaltered even after the incorporation of hydrophilic nGs. However, breakdown of the continuous nanofibers into lengths less than 7 µm occurred within four to eight weeks in the presence of nGs in contrast with the greater than two year time frame for the degradation of PCL fibers alone that is known from the literature. In terms of cell-material interaction, human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were found to attach and spread better and faster on PCL_nG scaffolds compared to PCL scaffolds. However, there was no difference in hMSC proliferation and differentiation into osteogenic lineage between the scaffolds. These results indicate that PCL_nG nanofibrous nanocomposite scaffolds are an improvement over PCL scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications in that the PCL_nG scaffolds provide improved cell interaction and are able to degrade and resorb more efficiently.
纳米纤维半合成聚合物纳米复合材料支架通过在静电纺丝前将最大 15wt%的生物聚合物明胶纳米颗粒（nGs）掺入合成聚合物聚己内酯（PCL）中进行设计。评估了 nGs 对支架物理化学性质、细胞材料相互作用和生物降解性的影响。实验结果表明，即使掺入亲水性 nGs，PCL 支架的固有疏水性仍保持不变。然而，在 nGs 的存在下，连续的纳米纤维在四到八周内分解成小于 7 µm 的长度，而单独的 PCL 纤维的降解时间已知从文献中为两年以上。就细胞材料相互作用而言，与 PCL 支架相比，人骨髓间充质干细胞（hMSCs）在 PCL_nG 支架上更好更快地附着和扩展。然而，支架之间 hMSC 的增殖和向成骨谱系的分化没有差异。这些结果表明，PCL_nG 纳米纤维纳米复合材料支架在骨组织工程应用中优于 PCL 支架，因为 PCL_nG 支架提供了更好的细胞相互作用，并且能够更有效地降解和吸收。
