title: Incorporation of poly(ethylene glycol) grafted cellulose nanocrystals in poly(lactic acid) electrospun nanocomposite fibers as potential scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.
abstract: Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-grafted cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were successfully synthesized and incorporated into poly(lactic acid) (PLA) as a reinforcing filler to produce nanocomposite scaffolds consisting of CNC-g-PEG and PLA using an electrospinning technique. Morphological, thermal, mechanical, and wettability properties as well as preliminary biocompatibility using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) of PLA/CNC and PLA/CNC-g-PEG nanocomposite scaffolds were characterized and compared. The average diameter of the electrospun nanofibers decreased with increased filler loading level, due to the increased conductivity of the electrospun solutions. DSC results showed that both the glass transition temperature and cold crystallization temperature decreased progressively with higher CNC-g-PEG loading level, suggesting that improved interfacial adhesion between CNCs and PLA was achieved by grafting PEG onto the CNCs. Wettability of the electrospun nanofibers was not affected with the addition of CNCs or CNC-g-PEG and indicating that the fillers tended to stay inside of the fiber matrix under electrical field. The tensile strength of the composite fiber mats was effectively improved by the addition of up to 5% CNC-g-PEG up to 5wt.%. In addition, the cell culture results showed that PLA/CNC-g-PEG composite nanofibers exhibited improved biocompatibility to hMSCs, which revealed the potential application of this nanocomposite as the scaffolds in bone tissue engineering.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering of China, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Department of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Guiyang University, guiyang 550005, China.
authors: Chunmei
authors: C
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors: Max R
authors: MR
authors: Salick
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors: Travis M
authors: TM
authors: Cordie
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Ellingham
authors: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering of China, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China. Electronic address: danyi@scu.edu.cn.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Dan
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Electronic address: turng@engr.wisc.edu.
authors: Lih-Sheng
authors: LS
authors: Turng
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000166:cytology*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D053761:Nanocomposites; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000737:chemistry*; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Cellulose nanocrystals; Interfacial adhesion; Mechanical properties; Poly(ethylene glycol); Poly(lactic acid)