Fabrication of Poly (Vinyl Alcohol)/Gelatin Biomimetic Electrospun Nanofibrous Composites and Its Bioactivity Assessment for Bone Tissue Engineering

Bone tissue engineering aims to heal bone defects that do not repair on their own. To construct an implantable osteogenic implant in tissue engineering, cells and bioactive molecules are seeded onto three-dimensional (3D) biomaterial scaffolds.

The aim of this study was to provide an appropriate micro-environment for hUC-MSCs attachment and proliferation over a biocompatible and non-toxic nanofibrous scaffold in order to differentiate into osteoblast cells.

In this work, a poly(vinylalcohol)/gelatin (PVA/GE) nanocomposite scaffold was prepared using the electrospinning method. Glutaraldehyde/methanol was used as the treating medium to prevent the rapid dissolution of the PVA/GE scaffold in a physiological fluid. The chemical, physical, and morphological characterizations of the prepared scaffold were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. In addition, the porosity, swelling ratio, pH changes, degradation profiles, and hydrophobic-hydrophilic nature of the scaffold were investigated. Biocompatibility of the scaffold was evaluated by using MTT assay. Finally, under osteogenic conditions, the differentiation potential of the human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) cultured on the crosslinked scaffold was assessed for 21 days.

The obtained results demonstrated that crosslinking treatment changed water solubility of the PVA/GE scaffold. Also, additional investigations showed good biocompatibility, non-toxic nature, and appropriate degradation rate of the crosslinked scaffold in comparison with the control group.

The results indicated that the PVA/GE crosslinked scaffold with good biocompatibility, non-toxic nature, and appropriate degradation rate can be used for bone tissue engineering aims.