The main challenge encountered in clinical efficacy of tissue engineered vascular grafts is development of a biomimetic scaffold. To establish a scaffold resembling the architecture of the native blood vessels, a bilayered small-diameter nanofibrous tubular scaffold was fabricated by sequential electrospinning process. The inner layer of the scaffold was electrospun from a blend of fast degrading poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS), a hydrophilic and elastomeric polymer, and slowly degrading polycaprolactone (PCL), with a weight ratio of 2:1, while the outer layer was electrospun using PCL. Our findings elucidated that nanofibrous PCL outer layer can improve the mechanical integrity and at the same time the presence of PGS within the nanofibers of the inner layer provides a nonthrombogenic interface. Additionally, electrospun PGS/PCL nanofibers with an appropriate balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics served a suitable substrate for adhesion and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); meanwhile, sufficient pore size provided by the inner layer facilitated cell infiltration into the interior of the scaffold. KEYWORDS bilayered tubular scaffold, electrospun nanofibers, poly(glycerol sebacate), polycaprolactone, vascular tissue engineering
Electroconductive scaffolds can be a promising approach to repair conductive tissues when natural healing fails. Recently, nerve tissue engineering constructs have been widely investigated due to the challenges in creating a structure with optimized physiochemical and mechanical properties close to the native tissue. The goal of the current study was to fabricate graphene-containing polycaprolactone/gelatin/polypyrrole (PCL/gelatin/PPy) and polycaprolactone/polyglycerol-sebacate/polypyrrole (PCL/PGS/PPy) with intrinsic electrical properties through an electrospinning process. The effect of graphene on the properties of PCL/gelatin/PPy and PCL/PGS/PPy were investigated. Results demonstrated that graphene incorporation remarkably modulated the physical and mechanical properties of the scaffolds such that the electrical conductivity increased from 0.1 to 3.9 ± 0.3 S m −1 (from 0 to 3 wt % graphene) and toughness was found to be 76 MPa (PCL/gelatin/PPy 3 wt % graphene) and 143.4 MPa (PCL/PGS/PPy 3 wt % graphene). Also, the elastic moduli of the scaffolds with 0, 1, and 2 wt % graphene were reported as 210, 300, and 340 kPa in the PCL/gelatin/PPy system and 72, 85, and 92 kPa for the PCL/PGS/PPy system. A cell viability study demonstrated the noncytotoxic nature of the resultant scaffolds. The sum of the results presented in this study suggests that both PCL/gelatin/PPy/graphene and PCL/PGS/PPy/graphene compositions could be promising biomaterials for a range of conductive tissue replacement or regeneration applications.
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