Fabrication Of Core-shell PEO-chitosan Nanofiber And Its Application In Melanocytes Transnlatation

Vitiligo is an acquired depigmentation disorder of unknown aetiology with a prevalence of 0.56%in China.Although vitiligo is not life threatening,it can cause a negative impact on the mental health and life quality of patients.A potential treatment for this disease is melanocyte transplantation.However,issues such as the mobility of cells in treatment suspensions and the impact of the changing environment with transplantation limit the effectiveness of such treatment.An approach to address these issues is the construction of a tissue engineering membrane,which can support melanocytes attachment,growth and proliferation.In this work,core-shell PEO-chitosan nanofibers were fabricated by co-axial electrospinning with chitosan in the shell and PEO in the core.The influence of process parameters on the morphology of nanofibers was studied.Glutaraldehyde vapor was used to crosslink the nanofibrous membrane.The nanofibrous membrane was evaluated as a melanocytes supporting scaffold.Results showed that crosslinking improved the morphology stability and water absorption as well as the mechanical properties.It was also shown that the fabricated membrane is able to support the attachment,growth and proliferation of melanocytes which indicates that it can be used as melanocyte supporting scaffold.From our study,it is shown that core-shell PEO-chitosan nanofibrous membrane can be effectively fabricated through co-axial electrospinning.Crosslinking by glutaraldehyde vapor improves the stability and mechanical properties.The obtained membrane can support melanocyte growth and proliferation showing its promising application in melanocyte transplantation treatment of vitiligo.