Chitosan–halloysite nanotubes nanocomposite scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

This work developed novel chitosan-halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) nanocomposite (NC) scaffolds by combining solution-mixing and freeze-drying techniques, and aimed to show the potential application of the scaffolds in tissue-engineering. The hydrogen bonding and electrostatic attraction between chitosan and HNTs were confirmed by spectroscopy and morphology analysis. The interfacial interactions resulted in a layer of chitosan absorbed on the surfaces of HNTs. The determination of mechanical and thermal properties demonstrated that the NC scaffolds exhibited significant enhancement in compressive strength, compressive modulus, and thermal stability compared with the pure chitosan scaffold. But the NC scaffolds showed reduced water uptake and increased density by the incorporation of HNTs. All the scaffolds exhibited a highly porous structure and HNTs had nearly no effect on the pore structure and porosity of the scaffolds. In order to assess cell attachment and viability on the materials, NIH3T3-E1 mouse fibroblasts were cultured on the materials. Results showed that chitosan-HNTs nanocomposites were cytocompatible even when the loading of HNTs was 80%. All these results suggested that chitosan-HNTs NC scaffolds exhibited great potential for applications in tissue engineering or as drug/gene carriers.

Covalently modified halloysite clay nanotubes: synthesis, properties, biological and medical applications

“…Cell morphology results exhibited that cells can be attached and grown well on the chitosan-HNTs. 6,85 The introduction of HNTs caused changes in the surface nanotopography of chitosan and involved an increasing roughness of the bionanocomposite. A rougher surface and the existence of the Si element in the HNTs-chitosan bionanocomposite surface are beneficial to the attachment of the cells.…”

“…The layer unit consists of a corner-shared tetrahedral SiO 4 sheet stacked with an edge-shared octahedral AlO 6 sheet with an internal aluminol group Al-OH. When n = 2 the mineral is …”

“…In addition, halloysite is proven to be a bio-and ecocompatible material as shown by several in vitro and in vivo studies. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Finally, HNTs are among the few nanotubes with a different composition of inner and outer surfaces that allow for different modification methods by simultaneous immobilization of two or more functional groups. Since 2008, the modifications of halloysite surfaces opened up the use of these nanomaterials for several applications in many fields.…”

Escalating Applications of Halloysite Nanotubes

“…The impact strength of the HNTs-epoxy nanocomposite 2,12 and HNTs-vinyl-ester composites also improved appreciably after loading of HNTs. HNTs also improved the tensile strength and Young's modulus of the chitosan 13,14 and PVA 15 nanocomposites films. The mechanical properties of PCL 16 , PLGA nanofibers 17,18 and EPDM [19][20][21] also improved by the addition of HNTs.…”

Halloysite nanotubes loaded with peppermint essential oil as filler for functional biopolymer film

“…Halloysite possesses a positive alumina inner lumen and a negative silica outer surface allowing its selective functionalization (Arcudi et al, 2014;Cavallaro, Lazzara, & Milioto, 2012), the formation of a liquid crystalline phase (Luo et al, 2013) and the encapsulation of chemically and biologically active compounds Lvov, Shchukin, Möhwald, & Price, 2008;Lvov, Wang, Zhang, & Fakhrullin, 2016;Lvov, DeVilliers, & Fakhrullin, 2016;Shutava, Fakhrullin, & Lvov, 2014;), such as drugs (Aguzzi, Cerezo, Viseras, & Caramella, 2007;Lun, Ouyang, & Yang, 2014), natural molecules (Massaro, Piana et al, 2015), marine biocides (Wei et al, 2014), cosmetics (Suh et al, 2011), and other functional agents (Abdullayev, Price, Shchukin, & Lvov, 2009). HNT are suitable as catalytic supports (Machado, de Freitas Castro, Wypych, & Nakagaki, 2008;Massaro et al, 2014;, adsorbent nanomaterials for wastewater decontamination (Szczepanik & Słomkiewicz, 2016;Zhang et al, 2016), and nanofiller for sustainable packaging (Liu, Wu, Jiao, Xiong, & Zhou, 2013;Tescione, Buonocore, Stanzione, Oliviero, & Lavorgna, 2014). Research reports (Gorrasi, 2015;Lee & Park, 2015) that pristine HNT exhibited an excellent essential oils solubilization ability as well as controlled release of properties.…”