Effect of the surface topography of electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone)/poly(3-hydroxybuterate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) fibrous substrates on cultured bone cell behavior.

The use of electrospun fibrous matrices as substrates for cell/tissue culture has usually been confined to those consisting of smooth fibers. Here, we demonstrated that in vitro responses of mouse-calvaria-derived preosteoblastic cells (MC3T3-E1) that had been cultured on electrospun fibrous substrates made from blend solutions of 50/50 w/w poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) of varying concentrations, ranging from 4 to 14 wt %, depended strongly on the topography of the individual fibers. As the concentration of the blend solutions increased from 4 to 14 wt %, the topography of the individual fibers changed from discrete beads/smooth fibers to beaded fibers/smooth fibers and finally to smooth fibers, and the average diameter of the individual, smooth fibers increased from ∼0.4 to ∼1.8 μm. The results clearly showed that MC3T3-E1 preferred the smooth hydrophilic surface of the fibrous substrate from 10 wt % PCL/PHBV solution because the cells appeared to attach, proliferate, and differentiate on the surface of this substrate particularly well.