Electrospun polycaprolactone/chitosan scaffolds for nerve tissue engineering: physicochemical characterization and Schwann cell biocompatibility

Electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL)/chitosan (CH) blend scaffolds with different CH weight ratios were prepared to study the effect of scaffold composition on its physicochemical and biological properties. Scanning electron microscopy showed bead-free homogeneous randomly arranged nanofibers whose average diameter decreased from 240 to 110 nm with increasing CH content. The infrared spectra of the PCL/CH blends were very similar to the neat PCL scaffold. Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis confirmed the presence of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in the scaffolds, although fluorine-from chemicals used as solvent-was also detected. The water contact angle decreased from 113 degrees (for PCL) to 52 degrees with increasing chitosan content. The biocompatibility was evaluated using fibroblasts and Schwann cell (SC) cultures. Cytotoxicity assays using fibroblasts demonstrated that electrospun scaffolds could be considered as non-cytotoxic material. Biocompatibility tests also revealed that the SCs adhered to scaffolds with different CH content, although the formulation containing CH at 5 wt% exhibited the highest proliferation on days 1 and 3. A better cell distribution was observed in the CH/PCL blends than in the neat PCL or CH scaffolds, where the cells were clustered. Immunochemistry analysis confirmed that SCs expressed the specific p75 cell marker on the scaffolds, suggesting that PCL/CH scaffolds would be good candidates for peripheral nerve tissue engineering.