Tissue engineering 3d porous scaffolds prepared from electrospun recombinant human collagen (Rhc) polypeptides/chitosan nanofibers

Abstract

Electrospinning, the only method that can continuously produce nanofibers, has been widely used to prepare nanofibers for tissue engineering applications. However, electrospinning is not suitable for preparing clinically relevant three-dimensional (3D) nanofibrous scaffolds with hierarchical pore structures. In this study, recombinant human collagen (RHC)/chitosan nanofibers prepared by electrospinning were combined with porous scaffolds produced by freeze drying to fabricate 3D nanofibrous scaffolds. These scaffolds exhibited high porosity (over 80%) and an interconnected porous structure (ranging from sub-micrometers to 200 µm) covered with nanofibers. As confirmed by the characterization results, these scaffolds showed good swelling ability, stability, and adequate mechanical strength, making it possible to use the 3D nanofibrous scaffolds in var-ious tissue engineering applications. In addition, after seven days of cell culturing, NIH 3T3 was infiltrated into the scaffolds while maintaining its morphology and with superior proliferation and viability. These results indicated that the 3D nanofibrous scaffolds hold great promise for tissue engineering applications.