Fabrication of chitosan/graphene oxide polymer nanofiber and its biocompatibility for cartilage tissue engineering

In this work, Chitosan/Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/graphene oxide (GO) composite nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning technique. The prepared nanofibers were characterized by using various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. FESEM images have confirmed the uniform distributions of graphene oxide nanosheets in the nanofibers with self-assembly with chitosan/PVA chains. Additionally, the results of raman spectra confirmed the existence of GO sheets in the nanofibers. The tensile strength experiments revealed that the incorporation of GO increased the mechanical properties of nanofibers. Further the biocompatibilities of the chitosan/PVA/GO towards ATDC5 cells was studied in a cell proliferation assay after day 14. The obtained results revealed that the chitosan/PVA/GO (6wt%) is found to deliver the most appropriate environment for the growth of ATDC5 cells when compared with chitosan/PVA/GO (4wt%) and chitosan/PVA. Hence, the chitosan/PVA/GO (6wt%) nanofiber can be used as possible substitute as an artificial cartilage.