Surface modification of oriented polysaccharide scaffolds using biotic nanofibers for epidermal cell culture

In this study, a novel scaffold was fabricated from nematically ordered polysaccharide molecules such as cellulose, chitin and cellulose-chitin blend (50–50%), termed as NOC, NOCh, NOC-Ch, by deposition of biotic nanofibers such as bacterial cellulose (BC) and collagen, which were prepared by aqueous counter collision method to allow the fiber width to reduce into nano-scales by high pressure impinging of aqueous suspension jets. The resultant aqueous dispersion of the nanofibers was spread over the templates using the spin coating technique and its surface morphology, roughness, strength, and hydrophobicity were characterized by atomic force microscopy followed by the tensile strength and contact angle measurements. The results indicated that, after initial deposition of BC nanofibers, the surface wettability of the scaffolds switched from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, whereas for collagen nanofibers, the surface hydrophobicity was increased. Repeated coating also improved the strength of the scaffold. Cell culture studies were carried out to explore the potentials of the modified scaffolds using the normal human epidermal cells. The results showed that the number of nanofiber coating cycles and surface morphology on the scaffolds played a role in cell elongation and its morphology. Particularly in this study, we have focussed on the changes in the morphogenesis such as cell adhesion and cell size grown on 1, 3 and 5 times coated scaffolds. The result indicated that the morphological changes depending on the coating nanofibers in the surface of scaffolds were related to increase in the epidermal cell size and altering cell adhesion.