Dimosthenis Mavrilas
University of Patras, Greece
Title: Production of electrospun biodegradable PVA nanofiber membranes for tissue engineering scaffold design
Biography
Biography: Dimosthenis Mavrilas
Abstract
Electro spinning is an attractive technique by which we can produce fibrous biodegradable polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering (TE) applications. Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) is a biodegradable, biocompatible polymer with a fast hydrolytic degradation rate due to its hydrophylicity, which however makes it suitable for cell viability and function. The combination of hydrophilic (cytocompatible) with hydrophobic (less cytocompatible but mechanically strengthen and more resistant to degradation) polymers may result in a suitable polymer scaffold design. In the present work, we aimed to produce PVA polymeric membranes, as a potential part of a composite polymeric TE scaffold, with specific nanofiber architecture, giving special attention to the orientation of the fibers and, hence, controlling the final mechanical behavior to match that of the physiological tissues to be replaced. To this end, we used a specifically designed and constructed drum collector for our custom made electro spinning system, with accurate angular velocity control, and tested different electro spinning parameters (concentration of polymer aquatic solution, transfer rate, needle-collector distance, applied high voltage and angular frequency) to obtain optimization of the design. SEM results showed that the fiber diameters ranged from 200 400 nm, with a good quality of fiber appearance. Fiber orientation was directly related to the angular velocity (or rotational speed) of the drum collector (500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 rpm). Tensile testing up to breaking point, to assess Young’s modulus and Ultimate tensile strength and strain, as well contact age measurements to assess scaffold’s hydrophylicity are currently running.