Biocompatibility studies of electrospun nanofibrous membrane of PLLA‐PVA blend

Abstract

AbstractElectrospinning, self‐assembly, and phase separation are some of the techniques available for the synthesis of nanofibers. Of these techniques, electrospinning is a simple and versatile method for generating ultrafine fibers from a wide variety of polymers and polymer blends. Poly L‐lactide (PLLA) and Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) are biodegradable and biocompatible polymers which are mainly used for biomedical applications. Nanofibrous membranes with 1:9 ratio of PLLA to PVA (8 to 10 wt % and 10 wt %) were fabricated by electrospinning. The percentage porosity and contact angle of PVA in the PLLA‐PVA nanofibrous mat increased from 80 to 83% and from 39 ± 3° to 55 ± 3°, respectively. The water uptake percentage of PVA nanofibers decreased from 190 to 125% on the addition of PLLA to PVA in the PLLA‐PVA nanofibrous mat. The nanofiber morphology, structure and crystallinity were studied by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The thermal properties were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). The biocompatibility studies of PLLA‐PVA blend were performed using fibroblast cells (NIH 3T3) by MTT assay method. The release of Curcumin (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 wt %) from PLLA‐PVA blend was found to be ∼ 78, 80, and 80%, respectively, in 4 days. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013