Electrospinning of liquefied banana stem residue in conjugation with hydroxyapatite nanocrystals: towards new scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Electrospun fibers have high structural similarity to the extracellular matrix. Some researchers have tried to fabricate cellulose nanofibers using electrospinning, although the fabricated fibers usually exhibited a non-uniform texture. Moreover, the fabricated mats always suffer from low biological and mechanical properties. Thus, the objective of this study was first to produce a naturally occurring cellulose from banana pseudo-stem. The native cellulose was then used to electrospin in order to determine how a Taguchi L9 orthogonal array can be used to fabricate a defect-free fibrous mat. Finally, cellulose was incorporated with hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles to generate a new fibrous construct in which cellulose provides a suitable environment for cell attachment and HA act as a strong filler increasing the mechanical properties. The results revealed that cellulose concentration of solution and applied voltage had the greatest effect on morphology of the fibers. The morphological characterization of the nanocomposites showed that they had a uniform nanofibrous texture without any significant bead, splashing or particle agglomeration. According to the mechanical tests, the samples containing the higher concentration of HA had a significantly higher mechanical strength. The results obtained from bioactivity analysis indicated an interesting morphological transformation into a flake-like structure which confirmed the high bioactivity of the scaffolds. Moreover, in vitro studies showed a pronounced increase in proliferation of bone cells on cellulose/HA nanocomposites compared to the neat cellulose. Given the high strength and the high biological activity, the new cellulose/HA scaffold can be promising for bone regeneration applications.Graphical abstract