title: Electrospun homogeneous silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) nanofibrous scaffolds by addition of acetic acid for tissue engineering.
abstract: In this study, we investigated the phase separation phenomenon of silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) electrospinning solution to improve the performance of silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) electrospun nanofibers. It showed that phase separation does occur in just a few hours in the silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone)/formic acid mixture solution. Acetic acid, small molecule nonsolvent for silk fibroin, was first introduced to silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone)/formic acid solution, a homogeneous solution without separation for over several days was achieved after mixing for 5 h. The morphology and composition of the silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) and acetic acid-modified silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) fibrous scaffolds were examined by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analyzer. Attachment and proliferation of mouse osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells were tested by scanning electron microscopy and cytotoxity assay. The results indicated that the phase separation of silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) solution might led to inhomogeneous morphology and composition of the composite scaffolds, and the inhomogeneity of the silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) scaffolds with formic acid as solvent had a remarkable difference on cell adhesion and proliferation. In contrast, there was no significant difference among the silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) scaffolds with formic acid/acetic acid as solvent because of their good consistency in fiber morphology and composition. These obtained silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) nanofibers had small average diameter of 190 ± 40 nm. The obtained results proved that this study provided a facile and effective approach to achieve compositionally homogeneous silk fibroin/poly (ɛ-caprolactone) scaffolds with formic acid as solvent for effective applications.
authors.affiliation: College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xingyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Junjiu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Materials and Textile, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China Key Laboratory of Advanced Textile Materials and Manufacturing Technology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, People's Republic of China jxiong@zstu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D016475:3T3 Cells; D019342:Acetic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000502:physiology*; D004595:Electroplating / Q000379:methods; D005349:Fibroins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D011091:Polyesters / Q000737:chemistry*; D012399:Rotation; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D011091:Polyesters; C016240:polycaprolactone; D005349:Fibroins; D019342:Acetic Acid
keywords: Electrospinning; acetic acid; formic acid; phase separation; poly (ɛ-caprolactone); silk fibroin