Hydrolytic Degradation and Bioactivity of Electrospun PCL-Mg-NPs Fibrous Mats

Abstract

In this work, the in vitro degradation behavior of nanofibers was investigated in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and simulated body fluid (SBF) to study their degradation behavior, as well as their bioactivity. The degradation was studied at different immersion times in order to evaluate how the presence of Mg-based nanoparticles can affect the degradation in terms of morphology, crystallinity, degradation rate and pH changes, and finally to evaluate the bioactivity of PCL-based electrospun nanofibers. We found that the degradation of the materials takes more than 3 months; however, the presence of nanoparticles seems to have an accelerating effect on the degradation of the electrospun nanofibers based on PCL. In fact, a reduction in diameter of almost 50% was observed with the highest content of both types of nanoparticles and an increase in crystallinity after 296 days of immersion in PBS. Moreover, the carbonyl index was calculated from an FTIR analysis, and a reduction of 20–30% was observed due to the degradation effect. Additionally, the bioactivity of PCL-based electrospun nanofibers was studied and the formation of crystals on the nanofibers surface was detected, except for neat electrospun PCL related to the formation of NaCl and apatites, depending on the amount and type of nanoparticles. The presence of apatites was confirmed by an XRD analysis and FT-IR analysis observing the characteristic peaks; furthermore, the EDX analysis demonstrated the formation of apatites than can be reconducted to the presence of HA when 20 wt% of nanoparticles is added to the PCL electrospun fibers.

Evaluation of the polycaprolactone (PCL) hydrolytic degradation in acid solvent and its influence on the electrospinning process

“…These results may indicate chemical changes in PCL both when it is solubilized in acetic acid and after its hydrolysis. Supported by the decrease in these bands observed in the spectrum obtained for PCL in pellets and their absence after contact with the acidic solvent used in this study [53][54][55].…”

Nanofibrous electrospun scaffold doped with hydroxyapatite derived from sand lobster shell (Panulirus homarus) for bone tissue engineering

“…The degradability is related to swelling due to water absorption, as reported by Patriati et al ; 30 the swelling process happened simultaneously with the degradation process, and the swelling process led to the degradation process. 62 The incorporation of HAp into the nanofiber offers hydrophilic water absorption because of the OH − functional group in HAp, 27 as previously described. When the PBS solution interacts with nanofiber membranes, the HAp in the nanofiber surface will increase the water absorption in the PBS solution, and the water diffusion will lead to hydrolytic cleavage of the polymeric chain and falls off into the PBS supernatant.…”