Development and characterization of conductive and biocompatible scaffolds for biomedical applications

Nowadays, there is a growing demand of tissue engineered scaffolds for cell culture and subsequent tissue regeneration. In this line, biopolymers and biodegradable synthetic polymers have been proposed for fabrication of tissue engineered mats, which must mimic the intrinsic features of the natural extracellular matrix in terms of, among others, morphology, functionality, biocompatibility or degradability. Electrospinning is a popular technique to produce scaffolds that has the potential to address these issues. In this work, a tailoring methodology was applied to obtain highly functionalized conductive polyester based scaffolds with high biocompatibility. For this purpose, blends based on polycaprolactone (PCL), gelatin (Ge) and polyaniline (PAni) were prepared into a hydrolytic solvent system and electrospun after several dissolution times. Regarding the biocompatibilization and the functionalization strategies, analyzing the scaffolds obtained after 24 h of dissolution time, it was found that the general characteristics, like the fiber diameter, thermo-oxidative stability and the thermal properties were influenced by the Ge concentration, while the PAni brought the electric conductivity to the nanofibers. The dissolution time influenced the resultant physico-chemical properties and morphology of the electrospun scaffolds. Bead-free fibers were obtained after 24, 48 and 72 h of dissolution time, while some beads appeared after 96 h. The DT influenced also the molar mass and the lamellar thickness of the electrospun scaffolds decreasing them, while increasing the crystallinity degree. The preliminary in vitro validation revealed the release of the Ge fraction into the PBS solution and the consequent decrease of the initial mass of the nanofibrous scaffolds. In this line, future investigations for a deeper validation of the scaffolds may bring valuable information about their suitability in terms of in vitro biocompatibility and further in vivo implantation.