Single-channel and Multi-Channel Electrospinning for the Fabrication of PLA/PCL Tissue Engineering Scaffolds: Comparative Study of the Materials Physicochemical and Biological Properties

Fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds with tailored physicochemical andbiological characteristics is a relevant task in biomedical engineering. Thepresent work was focused at the evaluation of the effect of fabricationapproach (single-channel or multi-channel electrospinning) on the properties ofthe fabricated poly(lactic acid)(PLA)/poly(epsilon-caprolactone)(PCL) scaffoldswith various polymer mass ratios (1/0, 2/1, 1/1, 1/2, and 0/1). The scaffoldswith same morphology (regardless of electrospinning variant) were fabricatedand characterized using SEM, water contact angle measurement, FTIR, XRD,tensile testing and in vitro experiment with multipotent mesenchymal stemcells. It was demonstrated, that multi-channel electrospinning preventsintermolecular interactions between the polymer components of the scaffold,preserving their crystal structure, what affects the mechanical characteristicsof the scaffold (particularly, leads to 2-fold difference in elongation).Better adhesion of multipotent mesenchymal stem cells on the surface of thescaffolds fabricated using multichannel electrospinning was demonstrated.