Study on Chitosan/Polycaprolactone Blending Vascular Scaffolds by Electrospinning

The chitosan/polycaprolactone (CS/PCL) vascular scaffolds were prepared by electrospinning in order to combine the advantage of CS and PCL into the vascular scaffolds. The obtained CS/PCL vascular scaffolds were dried with ethanol, and then characterized by SEM and electronic universal testing machine. The endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) were implanted in the scaffolds with various mass ratios of CS to PCL. The vascular scaffolds were examined by adhesion rate in different culturing times and the cells growth was observed. Micro/nano structured surface of CS/PCL vascular scaffolds are more stable after dealing with ethanol. The obtained CS/PCL vascular scaffolds showed porous, micro/nano structured surfaces which were similar to natural extracellular matrix. When the mass ratio of CS to PCL is 0.5, the breaking elongation of CS/PCL vascular scaffolds was 31.64%, and the curves of stress strain indicate that the obtained vascular scaffolds possess good elastic deformation. The adhesion rates of EPCs on CS/PCL vascular scaffolds increase to 95.1% in 24 h, the observation of EPCs labeled with CM-Dil (chlormethylbenzamido-1,1dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyamine) after culturing 72 h by fluorescence microscopy also illustrates that CS/PCL vascular scaffolds are beneficial to cell growth and cell adhesion.