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This work aims to fabricate scaffold using polyurethane (PU) integrated with bourbon oil (BB) and cobalt nitrate (CoNO3) using the electrospinning technique. Morphological investigation signified a fall in fibre diameter for the PU/BB and PU/BB/CoNO3 nanocomposite than the PU. Spectral analysis indicated that BB and CoNO3 were added within the PU matrix. Wettability analysis insinuated an increase in the hydrophobic nature of the PU/BB than the PU. PU/BB/CoNO3 turned to be hydrophilic due to the integration of CoNO3 in the polymer matrix. Mechanical testing of PU/BB and PU/BB/CoNO3 indicated an increase in the tensile strength of the fabricated composites. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) portrayed the reduction in the roughness of the PU/BB and PU/BB/CoNO3 compared to the PU. The coagulation studies invariably documented the improved anticoagulant behaviour and less toxic nature of the PU/BB and PU/BB/CoNO3 in comparison with the PU. Further, bone mineralization testing revealed the enhanced apatite formation of the nanocomposite. Nanocomposite scaffolds with the fore-mentioned properties hold good potential for bone tissue engineering.

Ayurveda oil contains numerous source of biological constituents which plays an important role in reducing the pain relief caused during bone fracture. The aim of the study is to fabricate the polyurethane (PU) scaffold for bone tissue engineering added with ayurveda amla oil using electrospinning technique. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that the fabricated nanocomposites showed reduced fiber diameter (758 ± 185.46 nm) than the pristine PU (890 ± 116.91 nm). Fourier Infrared Analysis (FTIR) revealed the existence of amla oil in the PU matrix by hydrogen bond formation. The contact angle results revealed the decreased wettability (116° ± 1.528) of the prepared nanocomposites compared to the pure PU (100° ± 0.5774). The incorporation of amla oil into the PU matrix improved the surface roughness. Further, the coagulation assay indicated that the addition of amla oil into PU delayed the blood clotting times and exhibited less toxic to red blood cells. Hence, the fabricated nanocomposites showed enhanced physicochemical and better blood compatibility parameters which may serve as a potential candidate for bone tissue engineering.

Introduction: Recently several new approaches were emerging in bone tissue engineering to develop a substitute for remodelling the damaged tissue. In order to resemble the native extracellular matrix (ECM) of the human tissue, the bone scaffolds must possess necessary requirements like large surface area, interconnected pores and sufficient mechanical strength., Materials and Methods: A novel bone scaffold has been developed using polyurethane (PE) added with wintergreen (WG) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ). The developed nanocomposites were characterized through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), contact angle measurement, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and tensile testing. Furthermore, anticoagulant assays, cell viability analysis and calcium deposition were used to investigate the biological properties of the prepared hybrid nanocomposites., Results: FESEM depicted the reduced fibre diameter for the electrospun PE/WG and PE/WG/TiO2 than the pristine PE. The addition of WG and TiO 2 resulted in the alteration in peak intensity of PE as revealed in the FTIR. Wettability measurements showed the PE/WG showed decreased wettability and the PE/WG/TiO 2 exhibited improved wettability than the pristine PE. TGA measurements showed the improved thermal behaviour for the PE with the addition of WG and TiO 2 . Surface analysis indicated that the composite has a smoother surface rather than the pristine PE. Further, the incorporation of WG and TiO 2 improved the anticoagulant nature of the pristine PE. In vitro cytotoxicity assay has been performed using fibroblast cells which revealed that the electrospun composites showed good cell attachment and proliferation after 5 days. Moreover, the bone apatite formation study revealed the enhanced deposition of calcium content in the fabricated composites than the pristine PE., Conclusion: Fabricated nanocomposites rendered improved physico-chemical properties, biocompatibility and calcium deposition which are conducive for bone tissue engineering., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2019 Jiang et al.)

The aim of this study was to develop polyurethane (PU) wound dressing incorporated with cobalt nitrate using electrospinning technique. The morphology analysis revealed that the developed composites exhibited reduced fiber and pore diameter than the pristine PU. The electrospun membranes exhibited average porosity in the range of 67% - 71%. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) showed the presence of cobalt in the PU matrix. The interaction of cobalt nitrate with PU matrix was evident in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The contact angle results indicated the improved wettability of the prepared PU/cobalt nitrate composites (82° ± 2) than the pure PU (100° ± 1). The incorporation of cobalt nitrate into the PU matrix enhanced the surface roughness and mechanical strength as evident in the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and tensile test analysis. The blood compatibility assays revealed the anticoagulant nature of the prepared composites by displaying prolonged blood clotting time than the PU control. Further, the developed composite exhibited less toxicity nature as revealed in the hemolysis and cytotoxicity studies. It was observed that the PU wound dressing added with cobalt nitrate fibers exhibited enhanced physicochemical, better blood compatibility parameters and enhanced fibroblast proliferation rates which may serve as a potential candidate for wound dressings.

Tissue engineering holds as a prominent technique to repair or replace the damaged human parts to recreate its native function. In this research, a novel scaffold based on polyurethane (PU) comprising megni oil was electrospun for tissue engineering applications. The obtained polyurethane blended with megni oil nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), contact angle measurement and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, the blood compatibility of the fabricated nanocomposites evaluated through activated prothrombin time (APTT), partial thromboplastin time (PT) and hemolysis assay to determine the anticoagulant nature. The morphological results showed that the fabricated nanocomposites showed reduced fiber size (789 ± 143.106 nm) than the pristine control (890 ± 116.91 nm). The interaction between PU and megni oil was identified by the hydrogen bond formation evident in the FTIR. The incorporation of megni oil in the PU decreased the wettability behavior (113.3° ± 1.528) and improved the surface roughness (646 nm). Preliminary evaluation of blood compatibility assessments was carried out using APTT, PT and hemolysis assay revealed the enhanced antithrombogenicity nature of the fabricated nanocomposites than the PU. Hence, we conclude that the fabricated new nanocomposite membrane with desirable characteristics which might find potential application in the tissue engineering applications.

Essential oils play an important role in reducing the pain and inflammation caused by bone fracture.In this study, a scaffold was electrospun based on polyurethane (PU), grape seed oil, honey and propolis for bone tissue-engineering applications. The fiber diameter of the electrospun PU/grape seed oil scaffold and PU/grape seed oil/honey/propolis scaffold were observed to be reduced compared to the pristine PU control. FTIR analysis revealed the existence of grape seed oil, honey and propolis in PU identified by CH band peak shift and also hydrogen bond formation. The contact angle of PU/grape seed oil scaffold was found to increase owing to hydrophobic nature and the contact angle for the PU/grape seed/honey oil/propolis scaffold were decreased because of hydrophilic nature. Further, the prepared PU/grape seed oil and PU/grape seed oil/honey/propolis scaffold showed enhanced thermal stability and reduction in surface roughness than the control as revealed in thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. Further, the developed nanocomposite scaffold displayed delayed blood clotting time than the pristine PU in the activated prothrombin time (APTT) and partial thromboplastin time (PT) assay. The hemolytic assay and cytocompatibility studies revealed that the electrospun PU/grape seed oil and PU/grape seed oil/honey/propolis scaffold possess non-toxic behaviour to red blood cells (RBC) and human fibroblast cells (HDF) cells indicating better blood compatibility and cell viability rates. Hence, the newly developed electrospun nanofibrous composite scaffold with desirable characteristics might be used as an alternative candidate for bone tissue engineering applications., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Electrospun polyurethane based nanocomposite scaffolds were fabricated by mixing with indhulekha oil. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) portrayed the nanofibrous nature of the composite and the average diameters of the composite scaffold were smaller than the pristine scaffolds. The fabricated scaffold was found to be hydrophobic (114°) due to the inclusion of indhulekha oil, which was displayed in contact angle measurement analysis. The fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results indicated that the indhulekha oil was dispersed in PU matrix identified by formation of hydrogen bond and peak shifting of CH group. The PU/indhulekha oil nanocomposite exhibits a higher decomposition onset temperature and also residual weight percentage at 900°C was more compared to the pure PU. Surface roughness was found to be increased in the composite compared to the pristine PU as indicated by the atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis. In order to investigate the blood compatibility of electrospun nanocomposites the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) assay, prothrombin time (PT) assay and hemolytic assay were performed. The blood compatibility results APTT and PT revealed that the developed nanocomposites demonstrated delayed clotting time indicating the anticoagulant nature of the composite in comparison with the pristine PU. Further, it was also observed that the hemolytic index of nanocomposites was reduced compared to pure PU suggesting the non-hemolytic nature of the fabricated scaffold. Hence, the fabricated nanocomposites might be considered as a potent substitute for scaffolding damaged tissue due to their inherent physicochemical and blood compatibility properties.

Introduction: Currently, the design of extracellular matrix (ECM) with nanoscale properties in bone tissue engineering is challenging. For bone tissue engineering, the ECM must have certain properties such as being nontoxic, highly porous, and should not cause foreign body reactions., Materials and Methods: In this study, the hybrid scaffold based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) blended with metallocene polyethylene (mPE) and plectranthus amboinicus (PA) was fabricated for bone tissue engineering via electrospinning. The fabricated hybrid nanocomposites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), contact angle measurement, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), and hemolytic assays were used to investigate the blood compatibility of the prepared hybrid nanocomposites., Results: The prepared hybrid nanocomposites showed reduced fiber diameter (238±45 nm) and also increased porosity (87%) with decreased pore diameter (340±86 nm) compared with pure PVA. The interactions between PVA, mPE, and PA were identified by the formation of the additional peaks as revealed in FTIR. Furthermore, the prepared hybrid nanocomposites showed a decreased contact angle of 51°±1.32° indicating a hydrophilic nature and exhibited lower thermal stability compared to pristine PVA. Moreover, the mechanical results revealed that the electrospun scaffold showed an improved tensile strength of 3.55±0.29 MPa compared with the pristine PVA (1.8±0.52 MPa). The prepared hybrid nanocomposites showed delayed blood clotting as noted in APTT and PT assays indicating better blood compatibility. Moreover, the hemolysis assay revealed that the hybrid nanocomposites exhibited a low hemolytic index of 0.6% compared with pure PVA, which was 1.6% suggesting the safety of the developed nanocomposite to red blood cells (RBCs)., Conclusion: The prepared nanocomposites exhibited better physico-chemical properties, sufficient porosity, mechanical strength, and blood compatibility, which favors it as a valuable candidate in bone tissue engineering for repairing the bone defects., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.