Electrospinning of chitosan/poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid)/hydroxyapatite composite nanofibrous mats for tissue engineering applications

Electrospinning, which is a fiber fabrication technique using electrical forces to produce fibers with diameters ranging from nanometers to several micrometers, can be used to prepare materials mimicking the extracellular matrix proteins for potential use as tissue engineering scaffolds. In this study, nanofibrous mats of chitosan (CH) and poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) having fiber diameters between 167 to 525 nm, and containing hydroxyapatite (HAp), were prepared by electrospinning technique. Morphological, chemical, thermal and degradation tests and cell affinity tests were carried out. Chitosan mats were stable in aqueous media and showed degradability in the presence of lysozyme. In PBS solution, PLGA mats disintegrated completely in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, CH-PLGA mats containing equal amounts of both CH and PLGA fibers and CH-PLGA-HAp samples containing 20 % HAp lost 50 and 40 % of their initial weight in 4 weeks, respectively. Cell culture tests showed that all electrospun fibrous mats promoted SaOs-2 cell attachment and proliferation. However, cell proliferation on CH-PLGA-HAp fibrous mats was higher compared to the others after 7 days demonstrating the positive effect of HAp on cell affinity properties compared to pristine CH or PLGA fibrous scaffolds.