Strategies of nanoparticles integration in polymer fibers to achieve antibacterial effect and enhance cell proliferation with collagen production in tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

Current design strategies for biomedical tissue scaffolds are focused on multifunctionality to provide beneficial microenvironments to support tissue growth. We have developed a simple yet effective approach to create core–shell fibers of poly(3-hydroxybuty-rate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), which are homogenously covered with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. Unlike the blend process, co-axial electrospinning enabled the uniform distribution of nanoparticles without the formation of large aggregates. We observed 5 orders of magnitude reduction in Escherichia coli survival after contact with electrospun scaffolds compared to the non-material control. In addition, our hybrid cores-shell structure supported significantly higher osteoblast proliferation after 7 days of cell culture and profound generation of 3D networked collagen fibers after 14 days. The organic–inorganic composite scaffold produced in this study demonstrates a unique combination of antibacterial properties and increased bone regeneration properties. In summary, the multifunctionality of the presented core–shell cPHBV+sTiO2 scaffolds shows great promise for biomedical applications.