Large-scale electrospinning of poly (vinylalcohol) nanofibers incorporated with platelet-derived growth factors

Abstract

Nanofibrous materials have great potential for use in tissue engineering due to their structure, which mimics the extracellular fibrous matrix. Increasing their biological activity is currently the main goal in the development of these scaffolds. From the standpoint of promoting healing and tissue regeneration, the use of human platelets containing hundreds of biologically active molecules is promising. The present work deals with the preparation of PVA-based nanofibrous material containing native platelet-derived proteins that are released in a sustained manner. The needleless electrospinning process of preparation of material that does not affect the activity of incorporated proteins has been optimized, and the resulting material can be produced on a large scale with a protein loading efficiency of 0.64%. The reasonable fiber diameter distribution (370±150 nm) with low defects ensures a homogeneous distribution of proteins. The use of high molecular weight PVA (125000 g/mol) with a high degree of hydrolysis (98–98.8%) resulted in a 40% reduction in PVA solubility without the need for subsequent covalent crosslinking. This, in turn, results in a sustained release of proteins, where after an initial burstrelease of 90% of the proteins, 10% is gradually released over the next 7 days. Our results demonstrate the potential use of the platelet-lysate loaded PVA material in tissue engineering.

Keywords

• nanomaterials
• pva
• electrospinning
• platelets
• growth factors