Biomimetic Gelatin/Poly(L-lactic acid) Composite Scaffolds by Co-Electrospinning

The basic approach to bone tissue engineering involves the development of highly porous biodegradable 3D-scaffolds, with interconnected pore network structure for cellular in-growth, revascularization, adequate nutrition and oxygen supply. Electrospinning is a simple and cost-effective technique that enables to fabricate scaffolds, from both synthetic and natural polymers, mimicking the three-dimensional nano-scaled features of ECM1. Synthetic bioresorbable polymers provide structural functionalities to the scaffold; on the other hand, natural polymers display unique bioactive properties and excellent cellular affinity2. To combine natural and synthetic polymers, electrospinning of blends has been proposed as a useful strategy, such as in the case of polylactic acid and gelatin3-5. In the current work a different strategy named concomitantly electrospinning (co-electrospinning ) is presented. Nanofibrous scaffolds made up of poly(L)lactic acid (PLLA) fibers and Type A Gelatin (Gel) fibers were fabricated by co-electrospinning with the aim of combining the bioactivity of gelatin together with the structural stability of PLLA in a unique scaffold.