Abstract
Electrospinning technique was used for the fabrication of Polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous scaffolds as 20 biodegradable polymer for soft and hard tissue replacement. Nanofiber's morphology, porosity, phase identification as well as thermal and biological properties were assessed using standard techniques. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs-hTERT) were used for investigating properties of PCL scaffolds in the field of tissue engineering. The ability of PCL nanofibrous scaffolds to attach, grow and differentiate the hBMSCs into matrix mineralizing osteoblastic cells was investigated. The SEM micrographs showed beads free and non-agglomerated highly aligned nanofibrous morphology with uniform diameter varied from 200 to 1000 nm depending on the solution concentration and voltage. The EDS-results showed that the carbon is the principal element of PCL nanofibers indicating that there are no chemical impurities into PCL polymer. The results of DSC confirmed the semi-crystalline nature of PLC. The TGA results showed that the PCL nanofibers have single stage thermal degradation with no weight loss up to 220 degrees C, with a slight weight loss from 240-440 degrees C due to the combustion of organic PCL matrix. The cell culture results showed that the cells do attach to the scaffold and they are alive and proliferate in the same rate as when cultured on plastic. Moreover the human MSCs differentiated to osteoblasts with calcium deposition when cultured on PCL nanofibrous scaffold, this was confirmed by ALP-, Alezarin staining and by scanning electron microscopy.