Electrospinning of single and multilayered scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

Optimized electrospinning conditions were applied to produce single and multilayered (ML) scaffolds composed of polycaprolactone, collagen and elastin. The ML scaffold was cross-linked with glutaraldehyde to increase the stability. Morphological and structural characteristics of the scaffolds were measured by SEM and FTIR analyses. Results revealed that polymers combined to each other well and uniform fibers were obtained with the diameters ranging from 156 +/- 53 to 1536 +/- 293 nm. Contact angle measurements were performed to investigate the hydrophilic character of each structure. It was observed that incorporation of the natural polymers into the blends increased the hydrophilicity. Mechanical tests proved that collagen contributed to fabricate stiffer structures while elastin provided more elasticity. Biocompatibility of the scaffolds was examined by SEM analysis and WST-1 test with mouse fibroblast cells (L929) in vitro. Results exhibited that the addition of natural polymers increased the cell growth, and none of the single and ML scaffolds presented cytotoxic effect.