Nanofibrous electroconductive scaffolds composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) and modified polyaniline for skin tissue engineering application

Nanofibrous electroconductive scaffolds were designed and fabricated using electrospinning approach based on a poly(vinyl alcohol)-grafted polyaniline (PVA-g-PANI) and neat PVA with various PVA-g-PANI content for skin tissue engineering (STE) application. At first, phenylamine-functionalized PVA macromonomer was synthesized, and then aniline was grafted onto macromonomer by an oxidation polymerization technique. The resultant PVA-g-PANI with different ratios was co-electrospun with PVA to afford PVA-g-PANI/PVA electrically conductive nanofibrous scaffolds. Physicochemical features of the scaffolds, including water uptake properties, surface wettabilities, and morphologies as well as biological properties such as biodegradabilities, cytocompatibilities, cells adhesion and proliferation potentials, hemolysis rates, and protein adsorption capacities were investigated. Surface wettabilities of the scaffolds were altered from 55.7 degrees for pure PVA up to 105.1 degrees for the scaffold with the highest PVA-g-PANI content (30 wt%). It was found that the biodegradation rates of the scaffolds were decreased by increasing PVA-g-PANI content owing to very low biodegradation nature of PANI. Hemolysis assay revealed that all scaffolds were nonhemolytic (hemolysis rate <2%), except the scaffold that fabricated with 30 wt% of PVA-g-PANI. As results, the constructed scaffolds with 15 and 20 wt% of PVA-g-PANI (S3 and S4, respectively) exhibited higher potentials in both physicochemical and biological properties for STE application.