Poly (lactic acid)-chitosan-collagen composite nanofibers as substrates for blood outgrowth endothelial cells

In this work, the attachment, viability and functionality of rat Blood Outgrowth Endothelial Cells (rBOEC) and genetically modified rBOEC (rBOEC/eNOS-GFP), which over express endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), were investigated on Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-chitosan and PLA-chitosan-collagen nanofibrous scaffolds. Both the cell types displayed good attachment, remained viable and functional on both scaffolds. Moreover, incorporation of collagen in the scaffold helped in sustaining the rBOEC for upto one week, although collagen was not found necessary for rBOEC/eNOS-GFP. We conclude that PLA-chitosan based nanofibrous scaffolds can be a potential candidate for BOEC based wound healing applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.