Effect of inhomogeneity of the electrospun fibrous scaffolds of gelatin/polycaprolactone hybrid on cell proliferation

In this article, gelatin (GT) and polycaprolactone (PCL) blended with a weight ratio of 50:50 were dissolved in the trifluoroethanol (TFE) or the acetic acid-doped TFE solvent system (0.2% relative to TFE) to prepare fibrous scaffolds of GT/PCL with different compositional and morphological homogeneities (denoted as the group 1 and the group 2 scaffolds) by electrospinning. The morphology and composition of the two groups of fibrous scaffolds were examined by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Then, using green fluorescence protein-labeled mouse fibroblasts and HaCaT cells (a human keratinocyte cell line) as the model cells, cell adhesion, morphology, and proliferation were assessed by laser scanning confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and cell counting kit-8 assay, respectively. The results showed that the morphological and compositional inhomogeneity of the group 1 scaffolds had a remarkable influence on cell adhesion and proliferation. In contrast, there was no significant difference among the group 2 scaffolds because of their good consistency in fiber morphology and composition. Phase separation resultant GT content variance in the group 1 scaffolds is suggested as one of the major causes. This study highlighted the importance of producing morphologically uniform and compositionally homogeneous composite nanofibers while electrospinning natural and synthetic polymer blends. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 431–438, 2015.