Potential of Electrospun Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)/Collagen Blends for Tissue Engineering Applications

Abstract

In this work, tunable nonwoven mats based on poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and type I collagen (Coll) were successfully produced by electrospinning. The PHB/Coll weight ratio (fixed at 100/0, 70/30, and 50/50, resp.) was found to control the morphological, thermal, mechanical, and degradation properties of the mats. Increasing collagen amounts led to larger diameters of the fibers (in the approximate range 600–900 nm), while delaying their thermal decomposition (from 245°C to 262°C). Collagen also accelerated the hydrolytic degradation of the mats upon incubation in aqueous medium at 37°C for 23 days (with final weight losses of 1%, 15%, and 23% for 100/0, 70/30, and 50/50 samples, resp.), as a result of increased mat wettability and reduced PHB crystallinity. Interestingly, 70/30 meshes were the ones displaying the lowest stiffness (~116 MPa; p < 0.05 versus 100/0 and 50/50 meshes), while 50/50 samples had an elastic modulus comparable to that of 100/0 ones (~250 MPa), likely due to enhanced physical crosslinking of the collagen chains, at least at high protein amounts. All substrates were also found to allow for good viability and proliferation of murine fibroblasts, up to 6 days of culture. Collectively, the results evidenced the potential of as-spun PHB/Coll meshes for tissue engineering applications.

Influence of Nanofiber Orientation on Morphological and Mechanical Properties of Electrospun Chitosan Mats

“…One of the major goals of TE is the design of scaffolds with optimized surface properties for cell interactions and mimicking as better as possible the microarchitecture of native extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding the cells in the microenvironment [ 2 , 3 ]. The ECM components, mainly proteoglycans and protein, are arranged as nano/microfibers (50–500 nm diameter), allowing the formation of highly interconnected porous network with the adequate structural resilience for specific cellular function [ 4 , 5 ]. Recently, the size and topographical features of ECM structural elements have been identified as a key characteristic that can direct cell behavior [ 2 , 6 ].…”

Bio-Based Electrospun Fibers for Wound Healing

“…Towards the last decade, electrospun PHA meshes started gaining high attention for potential applications as a wound dressing in skin regeneration. A wide range of PHAs have been used to produce electrospun fiber meshes with different morphology and alignment for wound healing application [125,[137][138][139][140], but in recent years, most studies have focused on the application of PHA-based blends and composites, or functionalized electrospun fiber meshes with improved physicochemical and bioactive properties [137,139,[141][142][143]. For example, Shishatskaya et al used poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB-co-4HB)], considered one of the best choices among the PHAs to produce electrospun fibers for wound healing applications, due to its low degree of crystallinity and high elasticity [137].…”

“…At the same time, only a small epidermal layer was observed in the PHBV mesh and the gauze controls. Some studies explored the influence of blending poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) or PHBV with collagen and/or gelatin on the scaffold properties, cell viability, and/or wound closure tests [139,[143][144][145]. In fact, adding a hydrophilic natural protein (e.g., collagen) to pure PHBV (or to PHAs in general) highly increases the scaffold wound exudate absorption capacity and cell-scaffold interactions.…”

“…SEM images of (a) poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)/Collagen (50/50 wt%) electrospun fiber meshes reproduced from open access article[143] distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, (b) poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) P(3HB)/P(3HO-co-3HD) electrospun fiber meshes functionalized with electrosprayed chitin-lignin/glycyrrhizin acid (CLA) (c) poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV)/Curcumin (0.5) electrospun fiber meshes and cross-sections of drug-loaded nanofibers and (d) SEM images of L929 fibroblast cells cultured on PHBV/Curcumin (0.5 w/v%) electrospun fiber meshes after incubation for 14 days reproduced from[39] (License Number: 4876940110497).…”

Modificação química do poli(3-hidroxibutirato) e preparação de membranas por eletrofiação para aplicação em biomateriais.

“…O PHB pode ser degradado em dióxido de carbono, água e biomassa por uma vasta gama de microorganismos (Chiellini e Solaro, 2003). Devido a suas propriedades inerentes de biodegradabilidade e biocompatibilidade, têm atraído a atenção tanto da academia quanto da indústria, e as pesquisas tem demonstrado tratar-se de um bom candidato na engenharia de tecidos, especialmente se usado em forma de membranas de fibras ultrafinas eletrofiadas (Sombatmankhong et al, 2007;Jiang et al, 2015;Castellano et al, 2018;Salvatore et al, 2018).…”