Optimizing an Electrospinning Process of Thermoresponsive Polymer-Protein Composite Nanofibers for Cell Culture

Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds have been used in tissue engineering applications because electrospinning is simple and the size of the fibers can be tuned based on set parameters in order to mimic the extracellular matrix. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), or PNIPAM, has proven thermoresponsive properties, which are attractive for cell culture; however, few studies have shown the ability of PNIPAM in 1,1,1,3,3,3-Hexafluoro-2-propanol (HFIP) solvent to be electrospun. Further, without crosslinking, PNIPAM is soluble in aqueous solutions, making it an inadequate choice as a biocompatible scaffold for in vitro research. Herein we discuss a method to electrospin, characterize and crosslink PNIPAM in HFIP. In order for the mats to be crosslinked, PNIPAM was co-spun with type I collagen in HFIP and then exposed to glutaraldehyde vapor. The crosslinked mats did not exhibit thermoresponsive behavior. However, cells survived and spread within the nanofibrous mats.