Abstract
Glycine (Gly), which is the simplest amino acid, induces the inflammation response and enhances bone mass density, and particularly its β polymorph has superior mechanical and piezoelectric properties. Therefore, electrospinning of Gly with any polymer, including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), has a great potential in biomedical applications, such as guided bone regeneration (GBR) application. However, their application is limited due to a fast degradation rate and undesirable mechanical and physical properties. Therefore, encapsulation of Gly and PVA fiber within a poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) shell provides a slower degradation rate and improves the mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. A membrane intended for GBR application is a barrier membrane used to guide alveolar bone regeneration by preventing fast-proliferating cells from growing into the bone defect site. In the present work, a core/shell nanofibrous membrane, composed of PCL as shell and PVA:Gly as core, was developed utilizing the coaxial electrospinning technique and characterized morphologically, mechanically, physically, chemically, and thermally. Moreover, the characterization results of the core/shell membrane were compared to monolithic electrospun PCL, PVA, and PVA:Gly fibrous membranes. The results showed that the core-shell membrane appears to be a good candidate for GBR application with a nano-scale fiber of 412 ± 82 nm and microscale pore size of 6.803 ± 0.035 μm. Moreover, the wettability of 47.4 ± 2.2° contact angle (C.A) and mechanical properties of 135 ± 3.05 MPa average modulus of elasticity, 4.57 ± 0.04 MPa average ultimate tensile stress (UTS), and 39.43% ± 0.58% average elongation at break are desirable and suitable for GBR application. Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results exhibited the formation of β-Gly.
Highlights
During the last decade, biomaterial science has become an essential field in tissue regeneration applications
The dense packing of fibers generates small pore sizes, which obstructs cell infiltration and limits its use in some tissue regeneration applications, it is useful in other tissue regeneration applications, including guided bone regeneration (GBR) [8]
The main aim of this paper is to develop and characterize a coaxially electrospun core-shell fibrous membrane made of Gly and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as the core materials and PCL as the shell material for GBR application
Summary
Biomaterial science has become an essential field in tissue regeneration applications. The main goal of tissue regeneration application is to promote cells attachment, proliferation, differentiation, and migration through a scaffold that mimics the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) [1,2]. The GBR membrane achieves its goal when the osteoprogenitor cells are exclusively allowed to grow in the bone defect by preventing the entry of non-osteogenic tissue. Anti-inflammatory and bone regeneration enhancement are additional properties that improve GBR function [4]. The fabricated nano/microscale fibrous scaffolds provide support for tissue regeneration and promote cell attachment, proliferation, and migration [5]. The core-shell fibers overcome the limitation of monolithic electrospun fibers, including degradability, bioactivity, and inappropriate mechanical properties, in addition to burst release of the incorporating molecules [9,10]
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