Evaluation of a three-layered electrospun membrane for guided tissue regeneration

Objectives: In recent years, electrospinning technique (ES) has been receiving more interests due to the topographical resemblance of electrospun nanofibrous fabrics to natural extracellular matrices (ECM). The aim of the present study was to fabricate and evaluate a new type of three-layered electrospun nanofibrous membrane for guided tissue regeneration (GTR) with one face of poly (lactic acid) (PLA)/collagen/hydroxyapatite (HA) membrane, the opposite face of pure PLA membrane and the middle layer of PLA/HA membrane as the transition.

Methods: The PLA solution, PLA/HA solution and PLA /collagen/HA blend solution were electrospun onto a grounded collector layer by layer to construct the three-layered composite membrane. The morphology of the membrane was observed by SEM and TEM. Its tensile mechanical quality and contact angles were also evaluated in vitro. The proliferation and morphology of periodontal ligament cells (PDLC) on both sides of the membrane were evaluated by MTT tests and SEM. Animal test was also conducted in dogs and new periodontal tissue formation in defects was examined by histological observation.

Results: The electrospun nanofibrous membrane provide non-woven porous microstructure with interconnected pores and the HA nanoparticles were proved to have a rather uniform dispersion. Cells were observed to have a better proliferation and spreading on the composite surface than on the pure surface. Histological results of in vivo test showed that more newly formed cementum and alveolar bone could be observed in the defects for three-layered membrane group compared to control group.

Conclusion: Here we fabricated a new type of three-layered gradient nanofirous GTR membrane using layer-by-layer electrospinning which has shown great potential for GTR applications. The study was supported by Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No.2006E124).