Novel bone scaffolds of electrospun polycaprolactone fibers filled with nanoparticles

Novel bone scaffolding materials were successfully fabricated by electrospinning from polycaprolactone (PCL) solutions containing nanoparticles of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or hydroxyapatite (HA). The potential use of the electrospun fibrous scaffolds for bone regeneration was evaluated in vitro with human osteoblasts (SaOS2) in terms of attachment, proliferation, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of the cells that were cultured directly on the scaffolds. The results were compared with those on corresponding solution-cast film scaffolds and tissue-culture polystyrene plate (TCPS). It was found that all of the fibrous scaffolds promoted much better adhesion and proliferation of cells than the corresponding film scaffolds and TCPS. Interestingly, the cells that were seeded on all of the fibrous scaffolds appeared to be well-expanded and attach on the fiber surface very well even only about 1 hr in culture, while those seeded on all of the film scaffolds and the glass substrate were still in round shape. Among the various fibrous scaffolds investigated, the one that was filled with 1.0% HA showed the highest ALP activity. Finally, all of the fibrous scaffolds exhibited much greater tensile strength at yield than all of the corresponding film scaffolds.