College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China.
Department of Biomedical Engineering-FB40, W.J. Kolff Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science-FB41, University of GroningenUniversity Medical Center Groningen, A. Deusinglaan 1,, 9713, AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
Macromol Biosci. 2017 Dec;17(12). doi: 10.1002/mabi.201700268. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Electrospun natural-synthetic composite nanofibers, which possess favorable biological and mechanical properties, have gained widespread attention in tissue engineering. However, the development of biomimetic nanofibers of hybrids remains a huge challenge due to phase separation of the polymer blends. Here, aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution is proposed to modulate the miscibility of a representative natural-synthetic hybrid of gelatin (GT) and polycaprolactone (PCL) for electrospinning homogeneous composite nanofibers. Alkali-doped GT/PCL solutions and nanofibers examined at macroscopic, microscopic, and internal molecular levels demonstrate appropriate miscibility of GT and PCL after introducing the alkali dopant. Particularly, homogeneous GT/PCL nanofibers with smooth surface and uniform diameter are obtained when aqueous NaOH solution with a concentration of 10 m is used. The fibers become more hydrophilic and possess improved mechanical properties both in dry and wet conditions. Moreover, biocompatibility experiments show that stem cells adhere to and proliferate better on the alkali-modified nanofibers than the untreated one. This study provides a facile and effective approach to solve the phase separation issue of the synthetic-natural hybrid GT/PCL and establishes a correlation of compositionally and morphologically homogeneous composite nanofibers with respect to cell responses.
静电纺丝的天然-合成复合纳米纤维具有良好的生物和机械性能，在组织工程中得到了广泛关注。然而，由于聚合物共混物的相分离，仿生纳米纤维的开发仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在这里，提出了使用水合氢氧化钠 (NaOH) 溶液来调节明胶 (GT) 和聚己内酯 (PCL) 的代表性天然-合成杂化物的混溶性，以便进行静电纺丝得到均匀的复合纳米纤维。在宏观、微观和内部分子水平上研究的碱掺杂 GT/PCL 溶液和纳米纤维表明，引入碱掺杂剂后 GT 和 PCL 具有适当的混溶性。特别是，当使用浓度为 10 m 的水合 NaOH 溶液时，可以获得具有光滑表面和均匀直径的均匀 GT/PCL 纳米纤维。纤维的亲水性提高，在干燥和湿润条件下的机械性能都得到了改善。此外，生物相容性实验表明，与未处理的纳米纤维相比，干细胞在经过碱处理的纳米纤维上的黏附和增殖更好。这项研究提供了一种简单有效的方法来解决合成-天然杂化 GT/PCL 的相分离问题，并建立了组成和形态均匀的复合纳米纤维与细胞反应之间的相关性。
