Surface modification of electrospun PCL scaffolds by plasma treatment and addition of adhesive protein to promote fibroblast cell adhesion

Nanofibres fabricated from synthetic polymers via electrospinnning may be uniform and possess consistent quality; however, due to the nature of polymers, these nanofibres may not serve as suitable substrates for cell adhesion. Thus, the present work is aimed to enhance cell adherence onto the as spun poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds via simple protein absorption, air plasma treatment and protein immobilisation methods. The as spun PCL fibres had average fibre diameter of 475.99 +/- 194.52 nm with average porosity of 72.29 +/- 1.90%. The laminin absorbed scaffold exhibited 20% increase in cell adhesion compared to the original scaffold. With the plasma treatment, the scaffolds increased their fibre sizes, but no significant change occurred in their porosities. The as spun PCL scaffold treated with air plasma was less hydrophobic and exhibited 66% increase in cell adherence compared to the original scaffold. When laminin protein was also included, a greater increase in cell adhesion was observed (84%). Comparing all methods, a laminin immobilised scaffold, with argon/oxygen plasma treatment followed by protein grafting with acrylic acid, showed the highest result of cell adhesion (96%). The results of the present work demonstrate the comparison of various means of using plasma treatment and laminin protein to enhance cell adherence onto the as spun PCL scaffolds, making it more suitable for tissue engineering and wound dressing applications.