Liu Mingxian, Wu Chongchao, Jiao Yanpeng, Xiong Sheng, Zhou Changren
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
J Mater Chem B. 2013 Apr 21;1(15):2078-2089. doi: 10.1039/c3tb20084a. Epub 2013 Mar 5.
This work developed novel chitosan-halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) nanocomposite (NC) scaffolds by combining solution-mixing and freeze-drying techniques, and aimed to show the potential application of the scaffolds in tissue-engineering. The hydrogen bonding and electrostatic attraction between chitosan and HNTs were confirmed by spectroscopy and morphology analysis. The interfacial interactions resulted in a layer of chitosan absorbed on the surfaces of HNTs. The determination of mechanical and thermal properties demonstrated that the NC scaffolds exhibited significant enhancement in compressive strength, compressive modulus, and thermal stability compared with the pure chitosan scaffold. But the NC scaffolds showed reduced water uptake and increased density by the incorporation of HNTs. All the scaffolds exhibited a highly porous structure and HNTs had nearly no effect on the pore structure and porosity of the scaffolds. In order to assess cell attachment and viability on the materials, NIH3T3-E1 mouse fibroblasts were cultured on the materials. Results showed that chitosan-HNTs nanocomposites were cytocompatible even when the loading of HNTs was 80%. All these results suggested that chitosan-HNTs NC scaffolds exhibited great potential for applications in tissue engineering or as drug/gene carriers.
本研究通过溶液混合和冷冻干燥技术制备了新型壳聚糖-埃洛石纳米管（HNTs）纳米复合（NC）支架，并旨在展示该支架在组织工程中的潜在应用。通过光谱和形态分析证实了壳聚糖与HNTs之间的氢键和静电吸引作用。界面相互作用导致一层壳聚糖吸附在HNTs表面。力学和热性能测定表明，与纯壳聚糖支架相比，NC支架的抗压强度、压缩模量和热稳定性有显著提高。但由于加入了HNTs，NC支架的吸水率降低，密度增加。所有支架均呈现高度多孔结构，HNTs对支架的孔结构和孔隙率几乎没有影响。为了评估材料上的细胞附着和活力，将NIH3T3-E1小鼠成纤维细胞接种在材料上。结果表明，即使HNTs的负载量为80%，壳聚糖-HNTs纳米复合材料也具有细胞相容性。所有这些结果表明，壳聚糖-HNTs NC支架在组织工程或作为药物/基因载体方面具有巨大的应用潜力。
