DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i01.043

Pages: 228-232

Scaffold engineering and fabrication techniques play a fundamental role in biomedical engineering applications. Tissue engineering has been considered as a very promising alternative therapeutic strategy compared to traditional approaches in order to reduce the cost of treatment for patients and cope with the need for finding suitable donors for transplantations and tissue/ organs regeneration. Several novel approaches have been employed, including the production of biological, synthetic and bio-artificial hybrid formulations that can mimic the structural, physicochemical, mechanical and biological properties of natural tissues and organs. Electrospinning, which belongs to the electro hydrodynamic techniques, has been considered as a suitable technology to fabricate non-woven fibrous formulations that could be utilized as scaffolds. In the present study, blend electrospun fibers made of polycaprolactone (PCL) and chitosan (CS), using trifluoroethanol (TFE) as an alternative solvent; have been investigated regarding their structural, physical and mechanical properties. Different scaffolds characteristics, such as average fiber diameter, porosity, density, contact angle, hydration and mechanical properties have been studied, and a comparison between PCL and PCL/ CS fibers was performed. In a nutshell, PCL/ CS fibers were thinner, more hydrophilic, exhibiting higher porosity and superior mechanical properties, compared to PCL fibers, and therefore could be considered as suitable scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.