Effect of addition of Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) on mechanical and biological properties of electrospun polycaprolactone scaffold

Recently, nanocomposites (NCs) based on Layered Double Hydroxides (LDH) and compression polymers have attracted a lot of bioengineer’s attentions. Because unlike non-composite materials, these compounds offer significant potential for superior behaviors. These materials exhibit good properties such as excellent bending, dimensional stability, cheap gas absorption, enhancement of thermal properties, ignition and mechanical delay. Such reinforcements occur in compression polymer matrices and adjustable properties of LDHs due to the intermediate effects of uniform and homogeneous dispersion of high dimensional LDH nanofillers. In the present study, polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer solutions containing different amounts of LDH (1%, 3% and 5%) were electrospun and the resulting fibers were structurally analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Also, using porosity, contact angle, degradation test, mechanical strength test, cell adhesion test and quantitative toxicity test (MTT), and cellular properties were investigated. During the studies, all scaffolds had a uniform surface and diameter with the same porosity. Also, with a 1 wt% and 3 wt% LDH, the tissue diameter decreased and increased with addition of 5 wt% LDH. In addition, increased of LDH leads to decreased in the contact angle of the structure. The degradation test result showed an increase in the rate of degradation with increasing LDH amount. The results of tensile and MTT tests showed an increase in tensile strength and cell proliferation with addition of LDH reinforcement. In cell adhesion test, the highest level of adhesion was reported in the sample with 1 wt% LDH. In general, it can be concluded that the sample containing 5 wt% LDH has optimal properties compared to other scaffolds and can be proper for tissue engineering.