Abstract
ABSTRACTGelatin fibers were prepared by electrospinning of gelatin/acetic acid/water ternary mixtures with the aim of studying the feasibility of fabricating gelatin nanofiber mats at room temperature using an alternative benign solvent by significantly reducing the acetic acid concentration. The results showed that gelatin nanofibers can be optimally electrospun with low acetic acid concentration (25%, v/v) combined with gelatin concentrations higher than 300 mg/mL. Both gelatin solutions and electrospun gelatin mats (prepared with different acetic acid aqueous solutions) were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry techniques to determine the chemical and structural changes of the polymer. The electrospun gelatin mats fabricated from solutions with low acetic acid content showed some advantages as the maintenance of the decomposition temperature of the pure gelatin (∼ 230°C) and the reduction of the acid content on electrospun mats, which allowed to reach a cell viability upper than 90% (analyzed by cell viability test using human dermal fibroblast and embryonic kidney cells). This study has also analyzed the influence of gelatin and acetic acid concentration both on the solution viscosity and the electrospun fiber diameter, obtaining a clear relationship between these parameters. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42115.
Highlights
The results showed the viability to obtain electrospun gelatin nanofibers at low acetic acid concentration (25%) combined with gelatin concentration of 300 mg/ml or higher
Both acetic acid content and gelatin concentration exhibited a clear influence on the viscosity solution, which trend was directly correlated with electrospun fiber diameter
The study of viscosity solution in front of time determined that the solutions with low acetic acid and high gelatin concentration were those showed the higher rheology instability, due to the gelation process, suggesting the importance to develop the electrospinning just after 1h of stirring the solution
Summary
Numerous reports in the field of tissue engineering have put the emphasis on the design and manufacturing of biocompatible and biodegradable supports with capacity of mimicking the structural and functional properties of extracellular matrices (ECM).[1,2,3] For an optimal biocompatibility, scaffolds used for tissue engineering should possess special characteristics of degradation, porosity, microstructure, size, etc.[1,3] These characteristics highly depend on the fabrication method and, different techniques for the production of such scaffolds have been investigated and optimized (e.g. self-assembly, phase separation).[1,2,4] More recently, the electrospinning technique appeared as a versatile technique for manufacturing nanofibers and nanofibrous arrays with dimensions and scale similar to those of the native ECM5-11, suitable for medical applications.[12]. The relationship between reagents concentration, solution viscosity and fiber diameter was studied given that the diameter of the fibers is a crucial parameter for instance, to mimic the size of the fibers composing the extracellular matrix of connective tissue
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