Electrospun chitosan/nanocrystalline cellulose-graft-poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) nanofibers as the reinforced scaffold for tissue engineering

In the last years, chitosan (CS) nanofibers as one of the biodegradable biomaterials in nature for tissue engineering and related fields, including wound healing and cell–material interaction, have been widely used. For this purpose, we prepared the reinforced CS/nanocrystals cellulose-graft-poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) (CS/NCC-g-PVCL) nanofibers via the electrospinning technique. Fabricated nanofibers were characterized and studied for their structural, morphological, thermal stability, as well as mechanical and hydrophilic properties. Uniform nanofibers were achieved, and NCC-g-PVCL contents were partially embedded into CS nanofibers, as revealed in SEM analyses. Incorporation of NCC-g-PVCL contents (0.5, 2.5, and 5 wt%) enhanced the average fiber diameter of the obtained nanofibers from 100 nm (neat CS) to ∼ 350 nm [CS/NCC-g-PVCL (5 wt%)] and improved the nanofibers thermal stability. Additionally, among the CS/NCC-g-PVCL nanocomposite fibers, those loaded with 5 wt% NCC-g-PVCL had the best mechanical properties. The water contact angle of nanocomposite nanofibers increased with elevation of the weight content of NCC-g-PVCL. Cell culture results showed that the prepared nanofibers had better cytocompatibility and proliferation than neat CS nanofibers. The results proposed that the developed CS/NCC-g-PVCL nanocomposite nanofibers were promising as new biomaterials to be applied in the area of skin tissue engineering.