Abstract
Electrospinning can be used to prepare nanofiber mats from diverse polymers, polymer blends, or polymers doped with other materials. Amongst this broad range of usable materials, biopolymers play an important role in biotechnological, biomedical, and other applications. However, several of them are water-soluble, necessitating a crosslinking step after electrospinning. While crosslinking with glutaraldehyde or other toxic chemicals is regularly reported in the literature, here, we concentrate on methods applying non-toxic or low-toxic chemicals, and enzymatic as well as physical methods. Making gelatin nanofibers non-water soluble by electrospinning them from a blend with non-water soluble polymers is another method described here. These possibilities are described together with the resulting physical properties, such as swelling behavior, mechanical strength, nanofiber morphology, or cell growth and proliferation on the crosslinked nanofiber mats. For most of these non-toxic crosslinking methods, the degree of crosslinking was found to be lower than for crosslinking with glutaraldehyde and other common toxic chemicals.
Highlights
Gelatin is derived from collagen by partial hydrolysis, either by acid processing or by alkaline or lime processing [1]
We give an overview of recent crosslinking techniques for electrospun gelatin nanofiber mats and their suitability for tissue engineering, with the objective to shed light on alternatives to common glutaraldehyde crosslinking, and making clear which crosslinking degrees can be reached by which method, to allow researchers on this base to decide which process is most suitable for their recent application
The low-toxic or non-toxic crosslinkers mostly necessitate more research to develop their full potential for crosslinking electrospun nanofiber mats
Summary
Gelatin is derived from collagen by partial hydrolysis, either by acid processing The crosslinking method influences the physical and chemical properties of the resulting scaffold [15–17]. This is especially important for nanofibrous scaffolds, as they are often produced by electrospinning. The structure of these ultrathin fibers is usually modified by the crosslinking process, in this way modifying the porosity, mechanical properties, and suitability for cell growth. We give an overview of recent crosslinking techniques for electrospun gelatin nanofiber mats and their suitability for tissue engineering, with the objective to shed light on alternatives to common glutaraldehyde crosslinking, and making clear which crosslinking degrees can be reached by which method, to allow researchers on this base to decide which process is most suitable for their recent application
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