(623ba) Functional Nanofibers Fabricated by Mussel Adhesive Proteins for Tissue Engineering

Various bioactive molecules have been introduced on the surface of nanofibers to design biomimetic tissue engineering scaffolds. For this achievement, generally, typical conjugation chemistry and physical adsorption procedures have been used after surface activation treatment steps. However, these strategies have limitations such as requirement of multiple steps, low stability or efficiency, and potential remaining toxic substances. Previously, we suggested that recombinant mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) which have a great cell adhesion ability and biocompatibility can be the potential biomaterials for tissue engineering. In the present work, through the typical electrospinning procedure, we fabricated novel composite nanofibers using polycaprolactone (PCL) and MAPs by varying their mixing ratios. Using the FT-IR, XPS, and contact angle analyses, we indentified well-exposition of MAPs on the surface of composite nanofibers to provide the friendly environment for cell-nanofiber interaction. Mechanically, MAP-contained nanofibers showed the stiff and brittle properties but the tensile strength was significantly increased by addition of MAPs. Through in vitro cell culture experiments, we found that cell adhesion and proliferation were also highly enhanced on the PCL/MAP nanofibers compared to sole PCL nanofibers. Also, we investigated the use of PCL/MAP nanoifibers as coating platform for many biomolecule types by simple coating without any chemical treatments. Collectively, our newly fabricated MAP-based nanofiber can be used as functional tissue engineering scaffolds.