Marziyeh Ranjbar-Mohammadi

Natural polymers are widely used for medical applications via nanofibers produced by electrospinning technique. Usually they do not possess good mechanical properties therefore they are generally used with another synthetic biocompatible polymer for bio medical applications. In this study we report the fabrication of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and gum tragacanth (GT) nanofiber blends through two nozzles electrospinning for either skin tissue engineering. Aqueous solution of PVA/GT (blend ratio: 60:40) was injected from one syringe and polycaprolactone solution from the other one. The effect of electrospinning parameters on the nanofiber morphology has been investigated. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of electrospinning parameters such as flow rate, distance between syringe tip/collector and applied voltage on the morphologhy and diameter of nanofibers. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to characterize the nanofibers. Hydrophilicity, biodegradation and mechanical strength properties of nanofibers were evaluated. Presence of PCL increased mechanical strength of the nanofibers. Cell culture behavior of the resulted nanofibrous mat was studies. It was found that presence of gum tragacanth on the upper surface of the mat increases the cell proliferation rate.