Fabrication and in vitro evaluation of PCL/gelatin hierarchical scaffolds based on melt electrospinning writing and solution electrospinning for bone regeneration

As an emerging 3D printing technique, melt electrospinning writing (MEW) has been used to fabricate scaffolds with controllable structure and good mechanical strength for bone regeneration. However, how to further improve MEW scaffolds with nanoscale extracellular matrix (ECM) mimic structure and bioactivity is still challenging. In this study, we proposed a simple composite process by combining MEW and solution electrospinning (SE) to fabricate a micro/nano hierarchical scaffold for bone tissue engineering. The morphological results confirmed the hierarchical structure with both well-defined MEW microfibrous grid structure and SE random nanofiber morphology. The addition of gelatin nanofibers turned the scaffolds to be hydrophilic, and led to a slight enhancement of mechanical strength. Compared with PCL MEW scaffolds, higher cell adhesion efficiency, improved cell proliferation and higher osteoinductive ability were achieved for the MEW/SE composite scaffolds. Finally, multilayer composite scaffolds were fabricated by alternately stacking of MEW layer and SE layer and used to assess the effect on cell ingrowth in the scaffolds. The results showed that gelatin nanofibers did not inhibit cell penetration, but promoted the three-dimensional growth of bone cells. Thus, the strategy of the combined use of MEW and SE is a potential method to fabricate micro/nano hierarchical scaffolds to improve bone regeneration. • PCL/gelatin hierarchical scaffolds were fabricated by melt electrospinning writing (MEW) and solution electrospinning (SE). • Improved cell adhesion and proliferation and osteoinductive ability were achieved for the MEW/SE composite scaffolds. • Nanofibers in multilayer hierarchical scaffolds did not inhibit cell penetration, but promoted the 3D growth of osteocytes.