title: Electrospinning of PCL/PVP blends for tissue engineering scaffolds.
abstract: Currently, one of the main drawbacks of using poly(ε-caprolactone) in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields is represented by its low biodegradation rate. To overcome this limitation, electrospinning of PCL blended with a water-soluble poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) was used to fabricate scaffolds with tunable fiber surface morphology and controllable degradation rates. Electrospun scaffolds revealed a highly immiscible blend state. The incorporated PVP phase was dispersed as inclusions within the electrospun fibers, and then easily extracted by immersing them in cell culture medium, exhibiting nanoporosity on the fiber surface. As a striking result, nanoporosity facilitated not only fiber biodegradation rates, but also improved cell attachment and spreading on the blend electrospun scaffolds. The present findings demonstrate that simultaneous electrospinning technique for PCL with water-soluble PVP provides important insights for successful tuning biodegradation rate for the PCL electrospun scaffolds but not limited to expand other high valuable biocompatible polymers for the future biomedical applications, ranging from tissue regeneration to controlled drug delivery.
authors.affiliation: Group of NanoMedicine, CEIT and TECNUN-University of Navarra, Paseo de Mikeletegi 48, 20009 San Sebastian, Spain. gmkim@ceit.es
authors.forename: Gyeong-Man
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Kim Huyen Trang
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Sara Maria
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Giannitelli
authors.forename: Yu Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rainer
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trombetta
mesh_terms: D020341:Absorbable Implants; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D002209:Caprolactam / Q000737:chemistry*; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D045424:Complex Mixtures / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011760:Pyrrolidinones / Q000737:chemistry*; D012399:Rotation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D045424:Complex Mixtures; D011760:Pyrrolidinones; D002209:Caprolactam; C042670:N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone; C000362:capron