Polypropylene Nanofibers as Scaffold Material for Cell Culture Using Melt-Blown Method

Nanofibers (NFs) produced by the electrospinning method have attracted much attention as cell culture scaffolds. On the other hand, olefinic polymers such as polypropylene (PP) can only be made into fibers and NFs by the melt-blown method due to the lack of solvent. We have succeeded in making PP-NF nonwoven fabrics with an average fiber diameter of 570 nm by controlling the amount of polymer pellets fed into the nozzle using the melt-blown method. This PP-NF nonwoven fabric showed excellent performance as a scaffold for Vero cell culture, which is necessary to make a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. © 2023 The Textile Machinery Society of Japan.