EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Among the complexity of materials used for repair and regeneration of damaged tissues, rationally designed bioinspired scaffolds that, beside physical support provided for cells, can mimic the structure and biological functions of extracellular matrix, being able to advance the regeneration of pathologically altered tissue represent thriving strategy in biomedicine.
The main objective of this study is to design novel GO-COOH decorated bicomponent hybrid scaffolds with nanofibrous architecture by rationally embedding into one entity two biobased-derived polymers with excellent biological and biomimetic characteristic (alginate and gelatine) and GO-COOH using electrospinning approach. The underlying principle is based on various types of interactions that can take place between the functionalities of the system’s entities and their synergy in improving the structural integrity, mechanical tailor ability and biological performances of the nanofibrous GO-COOH decorated hybrid scaffolds.
The SEM micrographs showed the nanofibrous structure along with the presence of GO-COOH on the surface of hybrid nanofibers. The structural investigations (FTIR, Raman and XPS spectrometry) emphasized the occurrence of different non-covalent interactions (e.g., H-bonding) as well the formation of new chemical bonds between the functionalities of the system ‘components. The nanomechanical investigations (nanoindentation) show a 10-folds increase of Young’s modulus of bicomponent nanofibrous structures as compared to monocomponent counterparts while the dispersion of GO-COOH significantly increased the elasticity of materials. The biological results (MTT and LDH assays) indicate a remarkable cytocompatibility of crosslinked bicomponent SAG scaffolds; the metabolic cellular activity is substantially improved followed the GO-COOH addition, suggesting that GO-COOH can support the cells adhesion, growth and proliferation.
Acknowledgements: This work was funded by a grant of Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2019-0205 (contract no. PD 83/2020) within PNCDI III and European Regional Development Fund through Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020, Priority axis 1, ID P_36_611, MySMIS code 107066, INOVABIOMED.