Hybrid electrospun polyhydroxybutyrate/gelatin/laminin/polyaniline scaffold for nerve tissue engineering application: Preparation, characterization, and in vitro assay

Despite the widespread central nervous system injuries, treatment of these disorders is still an issue of concern due to the complexities. Natural recovery in these patients is rarely observed, which calls for developing new methods that address these problems. In this study, natural polymers of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and gelatin were electrospun into scaffolds and cross-linked. In order to modify the PHB-based scaffold for nerve tissue engineering, the scaffold surface was modified by exposure to the ammonium gas plasma under controlled conditions, and the laminin as a promoter for neural cells was coated on the sample surface. Then, polyaniline nanoparticles were inkjet-printed on a sample surface as parallel lines to induce the differentiation of stem cells into neural cells. Infrared spectroscopy, absorption of PBS, AFM, degradation rate, contact angle, electron microscopy and optical microscopy, thermal and mechanical behavior, and analysis of the viability of L929 cells were investigated for the scaffolds. The results showed gelatin decreased the contact angle from 106.2° to 38° and increased the residual weight after PBS incubation from 82 % to 38 %. The moduli of the scaffold increased from 8.78 MPa for pure PHB to 28.74 for the modified scaffold. In addition, performed methods increased cell viability from 69 % for PHB to 89 % for modified scaffold and also had a favorable effect on cell adhesion. Investigation of culturing P19 stem cells demonstrated that they successfully differentiated into neural cells. Results show that the scaffolds prepared in this study were promising for nerve tissue engineering.