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Porous electrospun PLLA fibres with hydroxyapatite/keratin nanoparticles

Zhu, Jing

[Thesis]. Manchester, UK: The University of Manchester; 2020.

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Abstract

Due to clinical and economic demands, bone tissue engineering has been developed to simulate the system of natural bones using biomaterial composites, especially hydroxyapatite (HA)/natural polymer composites. To replicate the intimate inorganics/organics structure in natural bones, wool keratin was selected to modulate the assembly of nano-sized HA crystals via a co-precipitation method. A series of HA/keratin nanocomposites with different ratios were synthesised by adjusting the concentrations of keratin solutions and calcium phosphate and their final components. Subsequently, these nano-composites were electrospun with poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and collected as nanofibres and fibrous membranes. To further increase the surface area of these fibres, they were treated with acetone, which induced the re-crystallisation of PLLA chains and generated a highly porous structure throughout each fibre. This kind of porous structure improved the speed of mineralisation while the composite membranes were immersed in 5 times simulated body fluid (5SBF) solution. However, they had certain negative effects on cell attachment and proliferation.