Electrospun poly(L-lactide)/poly(ε-caprolactone) blend nanofibrous scaffold: characterization and biocompatibility with human adipose-derived stem cells

PLoS One. 2013 Aug 26;8(8):e71265. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071265. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

The essence of tissue engineering is the fabrication of autologous cells or induced stem cells in naturally derived or synthetic scaffolds to form specific tissues. Polymer is thought as an appealing source of cell-seeded scaffold owing to the diversity of its physicochemical property and can be electrospun into nano-size to mimic natural structure. Poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) are both excellent aliphatic polyester with almost "opposite" characteristics. The controlling combination of PLLA and PCL provides varying properties and makes diverse applications. Compared with the copolymers of the same components, PLLA/PCL blend demonstrates its potential in regenerative medicine as a simple, efficient and scalable alternative. In this study, we electrospun PLLA/PCL blends of different weight ratios into nanofibrous scaffolds (NFS) and their properties were detected including morphology, porosity, degradation, ATR-FTIR analysis, stress-stain assay, and inflammatory reaction. To explore the biocompatibility of the NFS we synthesized, human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) were used to evaluate proliferation, attachment, viability and multi-lineage differentiation. In conclusion, the electrospun PLLA/PCL blend nanofibrous scaffold with the indicated weight ratios all supported hASCs well. However, the NFS of 1/1 weight ratio showed better properties and cellular responses in all assessments, implying it a biocompatible scaffold for tissue engineering.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adipocytes / cytology
  • Adipose Tissue / cytology*
  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Biocompatible Materials / chemistry
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cell Lineage
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Cell Survival
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Male
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Nanofibers / chemistry*
  • Polyesters / chemistry*
  • Porosity
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Regeneration
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
  • Stem Cells / cytology*
  • Tensile Strength
  • Tetrazolium Salts
  • Thiazoles
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Tissue Scaffolds / chemistry*

Substances

  • Biocompatible Materials
  • Polyesters
  • Tetrazolium Salts
  • Thiazoles
  • lactide-caprolactone copolymer
  • thiazolyl blue

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by the National Scientific Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30700171 and 81270851, http://www.nsfc.gov.cn), the Scientific Research Fund of Tongji Hospital (2012) and the Funding Project for the Young Teachers of Wuhan University (2011). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.