Influence of the microstructures of porous electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/carbon nanotubes composite nanofibers and macroporous films on the growth of fibroblast cells

Porous polymer nanofibers and macroporous polymer membranes have been generally used as tissue engineering scaffolds. However, the effect of the microstructures related to different porous materials on the cell growth and proliferation remains unclear. In this report, porous PLGA and PLGA/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) membranes prepared using both electrospinning and colloidal templating approaches were fabricated. The formed electrospun PLGA and PLGA/MWCNTs nanofibrous mats have a fiber diameter of 500 nm and porosity around 75%. While the macroporous PLGA and PLGA/MWCNTs membranes with pore diameters of 7 were produced by etching the melamine formaldehyde (MF) resin particles with similar diameters in PLGA and PLGA/MWCNTs films formed using a solution casting method. The viability of rat fibroblast cells cultured on these two types of different scaffolds was assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The results showed that the PLGA composite scaffolds with MWCNTs prepared with both methods tended to promote fibroblast attachment, spreading and proliferation when compared with pure porous PLGA fibrous mats and macroporous PLGA films. The fabricated porous PLGA/MWCNTs composite membranes could be further developed for tissue engineering scaffolds in the area of regenerative medicine.