Abstract
Alginate is a promising biocompatible and biodegradable polymer for production of nanofibers for drug delivery and tissue engineering. However, alginate is difficult to electrospin due to its polyelectrolyte nature. The aim was to improve the ‘electrospinability’ of alginate with addition of exceptionally high molecular weight poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as a co-polymer. The compositions of the polymer-blend solutions for electrospinning were varied for PEO molecular weight, total (alginate plus PEO) polymer concentration, and PEO proportion in the dry alginate–PEO polymer mix used. These were tested for rheology (viscosity, complex viscosity, storage and loss moduli) and conductivity, and the electrospun nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. One-parameter-at-a-time approach and response surface methodology (RSM) were used to optimize the polymer-blend solution composition to obtain defined nanofibers. Both approaches revealed that the major influence on nanofiber formation and diameter were total polymer concentration and PEO proportion. These polymer-blend solutions of appropriate conductivity and viscosity enabled fine-tuning of nanofiber diameter. PEO molecular weight of 2–4 million Da greatly improved the electrospinnability of alginate, producing nanofibers with >85% alginate. This study shows that RSM can be used to design nanofibers with optimal alginate and co-polymer contents to provide efficient scaffold material for regenerative medicine.
Highlights
Polymer nanofibers represent a very promising nanostructured material for biomedical applications, such as advanced drug delivery systems [1,2], wound dressings [3], vascular grafts, and as a scaffold material in regenerative medicine [4,5,6]
This study reports on a thoroughly investigated set of experiments that were designed to produce nanofibers with an alginate content >85% when blended with only high molecular weight (Mw) poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as the co-polymer
response surface methodology (RSM) was used to define the correlations between the polymer-blend solution compositions, its rheological and conductivity parameters, and its electrospinnability and the nanofiber diameters
Summary
Polymer nanofibers represent a very promising nanostructured material for biomedical applications, such as advanced drug delivery systems [1,2], wound dressings [3], vascular grafts, and as a scaffold material in regenerative medicine [4,5,6]. Trends in regenerative medicine are progressing toward the use of biomaterials as tissue scaffolds that can promote endogenous healing on their own, without the need for delivery of cells or therapeutics. Nanofibers can enable the construction of a three-dimensional tissue scaffold of suitable thickness, strength, and mesh size for adequate cell infiltration [4,8]. They can be prepared from polymers of synthetic
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