Electrospun nanostructured chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) scaffolds: a biomimetic extracellular matrix as dermal substitute

Biomed Mater. 2012 Aug;7(4):045005. doi: 10.1088/1748-6041/7/4/045005. Epub 2012 May 8.

Abstract

Electrospinning is a versatile technique to make biomimetic and nanostructured scaffolds for skin tissue engineering. In this study we have electrospun and characterized chitosan (C)-poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) blend nanofibers as dermal substitutes and compared with 2D C-PVA films. The in vitro characterization of the C-PVA nanofibers and 2D films were evaluated using mouse 3T3 fibroblast cells and our results demonstrated that the cells adhered and proliferated on the surface of C-PVA nanofibers. In our animal studies, the implantation of C-PVA nanofibers along with topical administration of growth factor R-Spondin 1 on full thickness wounds created on rats showed 98.6% wound closure after two weeks post-surgery. The catalase and superoxide dismutase activity of the healing tissue was significantly higher in the groups treated with topical administration of growth factor and C-PVA nanofibers (p < 0.05). Thus these C-PVA nanofibers along with novel growth factor are promising new biomaterials that could be used as dermal substitutes for accelerated wound healing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • 3T3 Cells
  • Animals
  • Biocompatible Materials / chemistry
  • Biomimetics
  • Cell Adhesion
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Chitosan / chemistry*
  • Extracellular Matrix / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / methods
  • Polyvinyl Alcohol / chemistry*
  • Porosity
  • Rats
  • Skin, Artificial*
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / methods
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Tensile Strength
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Wound Healing

Substances

  • Biocompatible Materials
  • Polyvinyl Alcohol
  • Chitosan