Preparation and characterization of coaxial electrospun thermoplastic polyurethane/collagen compound nanofibers for tissue engineering applications

Collagen functionalized thermoplastic polyurethane nanofibers (TPU/collagen) were successfully produced by coaxial electrospinning technique with a goal to develop biomedical scaffold. A series of tests were conducted to characterize the compound nanofiber and its membrane in this study. Surface morphology and interior structure of the ultrafine fibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), whereas the fiber diameter distribution was also measured. The crosslinked membranes were also characterized by SEM. Porosities of different kinds of electrospun mats were determined. The surface chemistry and chemical composition of collagen/TPU coaxial nanofibrous membranes were verified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). Mechanical measurements were carried out by applying tensile test loads to samples which were prepared from electrospun ultra fine non-woven fiber mats. The coaxial electrospun nanofibers were further investigated as a promising scaffold for PIECs culture. The results demonstrated that coaxial electrospun composite nanofibers had the characters of native extracellular matrix and may be used effectively as an alternative material for tissue engineering and functional biomaterials. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.