Electrospun aligned PLGA and PLGA/gelatin nanofibers embedded with silica nanoparticles for tissue engineering

Aligned poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) and PLGA/gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds embedded with mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) were fabricated using electrospinning method. The mean diameters of nanofibers were 641±24nm for the pure PLGA scaffolds vs 418±85nm and 267±58nm for the PLGA/10wt% MSNPs and the PLGA/gelatin/10wt% MSNPs scaffolds, respectively. The contact angle measurement results (102°±6.7 for the pure PLGA scaffold vs 81°±6.8 and 18°±8.7 for the PLGA/10wt% MSNPs and the PLGA/gelatin/10wt% MSNPs scaffolds, respectively) revealed enhanced hydrophilicity of scaffolds upon incorporation of gelatin and MSNPs. Besides, embedding the scaffolds with MSNPs resulted in improved tensile mechanical properties. Cultivation of PC12 cells on the scaffolds demonstrated that introduction of MSNPs into PLGA and PLGA/gelatin matrices leads to the improved cell attachment and proliferation as well as long cellular processes. DAPI staining results indicated that cell proliferations on the PLGA/10wt% MSNPs and the PLGA/gelatin/10wt% MSNPs scaffolds were strikingly (nearly 2.5 and 3 folds, respectively) higher than that on the aligned pure PLGA scaffolds. These results suggest superior properties of silica nanoparticles-incorporated PLGA/gelatin eletrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for the stem cell culture and tissue engineering applications.