In Vitro Biological Evaluation of Electrospun Polycaprolactone/Gelatine Nanofibrous Scaffold for Tissue Engineering

The fabrication of biocompatible and biodegradable scaffolds which mimic the native extracellular matrix of tissues to promote cell adhesion and growth is emphasized recently. Many polymers have been utilized in scaffold fabrication, but there is still a need to fabricate hydrophilic nanosized fibrous scaffolds with an appropriate degradation rate for skin tissue engineering applications. In this study, nanofibrous scaffolds of a biodegradable synthetic polymer, polycaprolactone (PCL), and blends of PCL with a natural polymer, gelatine (Ge), in three different compositions: 85 : 15, 70 : 30, and 50 : 50 were fabricated via an electrospinning technique. The nanofibrous scaffold prepared from 14% w/v PCL/Ge (70 : 30) exhibited more balanced properties of homogeneous nanofibres with an average fibre diameter of 155.60 +/- 41.13 nm, 83% porosity, and surface roughness of 176.27 +/- 2.53 nm. In vitro cell culture study using human skin fibroblasts (HSF) demonstrated improved cell attachment with a flattened morphology on the PCL/Ge (70 : 30) nanofibrous scaffold and accelerated proliferation on day 3 compared to the PCL nanofibrous scaffold. These results show that the PCL/Ge (70 : 30) nanofibrous scaffold was more favourable and has the potential to be a promising scaffold for skin tissue engineering applications.