Preparation And Characterization Of Electrospun PEA Based Nanofibers And Their Biocompatiblility Study

Native extracellular matrix(ECM) is a chemically and physically cross-linked complex network of three important classes of biomacromolecules secreted locally by cells.These are fibrous proteins,proteoglycans,and non-fibrous proteins.In a typical connective tissue,structural fibers such as collagen fibers and elastin fibers have diameters ranging from several ten to several hundred nanometers.The nanoscaled fibers entangle with each other to form a nonwoven mesh that provides tensile strength and elasticity for the tissues.The morphology of polymer nanofibers are similar to ECM,and can supply a 3-D environment and more acceptor sites for cell adherence and growth.In this study,electrospinning has been used to fabricate nanofibers as biomemitic ECM for excellent biomaterials.There are four parts as following in this paper.(1) PEA was electrospun into nanofibers as biomemitic ECM for the first time.In this study, SEM,FTIR,XRD,contact angle,and mechanical test machine were used to characterize the nanofiber.The results showed that PEA nanofiber and its fibric have shown valuable potencial application as biomaterials for tissue engineering scaffold,wound dressing,and so on..(2)Crosslinking of PEA nanofibers.GTA crosslinking treatment was used to improve the insolubility,thermal and mechanical property of PEA nanofibers.The results showed that water insolubility of as-electrospun PEA nanofibers was greatly enhanced through GTA crosslinking treatment and their thermal and mechnical performance were also improved.(3) The PEA-PCL complex nanofibers have been prepared for the first time.The molecular interactions in PEA-PCL complex was characterized by Attenuated Total Reflectance(ATR) infrared spectrum.Contact angle measurement shown that with the PEA content increasing in the blend system,the hydrophilicity of the nanofiber mats is greatly improved.Mechanical test showed that mechanical performance depended on the ratio of PEA to PCL in the complex. (4) The cells of PIECs were seeded on nanofiber mats for proliferation studies.PIECs cell growth on nanofiber mats were investigated with MTT assay and Fluorescence Microscopy observation.The results showed that PEA-PCL complex nanofiber and its fibric have shown valuable potencial application as biomaterials for tissue engineering scaffold,wound dressing,and so on.