Fabrication and Bioapplications of Magnetically Modified Chitosan-based Electrospun Nanofibers

Abstract

The fabrication of magnetically modified electrospun nanocomposite fibers based on a naturally-derived biocompatible and biodegradable polysaccharide chitosan (CS) and the hydrophilic and biocompatible poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) is reported herein. The anchoring of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) onto the surfaces of the electrospun PVP/CS fibers was carried out by a post-magnetization process based on chemical coprecipitation, via immersing the produced fibrous mats in an aqueous solution containing Fe(II) and Fe(III) salts at appropriate molar ratios, followed by the addition of a weak base to yield MNPs. Electron microscopy revealed the presence of continuous micron and submicron fibers surface-decorated with MNPs. The magnetically modified PVP/CS fibers exhibited superparamagnetic behavior at ambient temperature. The magnetic fibrous nanocomposite carrier was employed for the immobilization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells and their use for sucrose hydrolysis, and Candida rugosa lipase and its use for artificial substrate hydrolysis.

Wet-spinning of magneto-responsive helical chitosan microfibers

“…According to the dynamic light scattering results (Table S2, Supporting Information File 1), small IOP agglomerates were already present in the acidic stock solution. The particle distribution obtained in this work differs from previous studies in which magnetic nanoparticles (diameter between 5 and 12 nm) were either blended into electrospun chitosan-based fibers [38] or loaded onto the fiber surface by a post-treatment [39]. To tailor our wet-spun magnetic chitosan fibers for possible applications in magnetic tissue engineering [44,46] it will be important to determine the effect that smaller magnetic particles have on the microfiber morphology, on the particle distribution and on the overall scaffold magnetization.…”

“…At 10 mg•mL −1 (the maximum IOP concentration used) the fibers showed a fairly strong magnetic saturation at 40 emu•g −1 . This value is higher than what had been previously reported for chitosan-based fiber blends containing magnetic nanoparticles with a diameter varying between 10 and 30 nm [38] or in another study with a diameter of 5.3 nm [39]. Since the magnetic particles used in this work were approximately 100 nm in diameter, the wet-spun chitosan fibers obtained were clearly ferromagnetic rather than superparamagnetic [40].…”

“…In addition, helically shaped chitosan IOP fibers could be easily attracted to and reversibly stretched by a permanent neodymium magnet ( Figure 5 and Supporting Information File 2). Based on what has already been established in terms of biocompatibility of chitosan-IOP blends [39], the fibers generated in this study are therefore highly interesting for future use as a magnetic cell scaffold in actuator systems.…”

Protein–Polysaccharide Composite Materials: Fabrication and Applications

“…The material chitosan can be found in a few fungi species, and is mainly produced through chitin deacetylation. Due to its high degree of crystallinity, the materials are extremely stable through hydrogen bonding [61]. These materials contain no antigenic properties, which makes them biocompatible as well as eco-friendly [62][63][64].…”

A glimpse of biodegradable polymers and their biomedical applications

“…Electrospinning was patented in the mid-1930s for the production of textile threads and it has gained considerable interest in late 20 th century after realizing the potential of this method in the medical field by the fabrication scaffolds with long, porous fibers with thin diameters which rendered them high surface to volume ratio, good mechanical properties through entanglement, high flexibility, low weight and cost (230,231). The typical electrospinning systems consists a conductive spinneret to infuse polymer solution, and a conductive grounded collector having high voltage power supply to generate a strong electric field between them as shown in Figure 10 (232,233).…”