Electrospun Poly(ε-caprolactone) Fiber Scaffolds Functionalized by the Covalent Grafting of a Bioactive Polymer: Surface Characterization and Influence on in Vitro Biological Response

Gana Amokrane; Vincent Humblot; Emile Jubeli; Najet Yagoubi; Salah Ramtani; Véronique Migonney; Céline Falentin-Daudré

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b01647

Electrospun Poly(ε-caprolactone) Fiber Scaffolds Functionalized by the Covalent Grafting of a Bioactive Polymer: Surface Characterization and Influence on in Vitro Biological Response

ACS Omega. 2019 Oct 9;4(17):17194-17208. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01647. eCollection 2019 Oct 22.

Authors

Gana Amokrane¹, Vincent Humblot², Emile Jubeli³, Najet Yagoubi³, Salah Ramtani¹, Véronique Migonney¹, Céline Falentin-Daudré¹

Affiliations

¹ Université Paris 13 Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire CSPBAT, équipe LBPS, CNRS (UMR 7244), Institut Galilée, 93430 Villetaneuse, France.
² Sorbonne Université, Caboratoire de Réactivité de Surface, UMR CNRS 7197, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France.
³ Laboratoire Matériaux et Santé EA 401, UFR de Pharmacie, Université Paris-Sud, 92290 Châtenay-Malabry, France.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present the poly(caprolactone) (PCL) functionalization by the covalent grafting of poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) on electrospun scaffolds using the "grafting from" technique and evaluate the effect of the coating and surface wettability on the biological response. The "grafting from" technique required energy (thermal or UV) to induce the decomposition of the PCL (hydro)peroxides and generate radicals able to initiate the polymerization of NaSS. In addition, UV irradiation was used to initiate the radical polymerization of NaSS directly from the surface (UV direct "grafting from"). The interest of these two techniques is their easiness, the reduction of the number of process steps, and its applicability to the industry. The selected parameters allow controlling the grafting rate (i.e., degree of functionalization). The aim of the study was to compare two covalent grafting in terms of surface functionalization and hydrophilicity and their effect on the in vitro biological responses of fibroblasts. The achieved results showed the influence of the sulfonate functional groups on the cell response. In addition, outcomes highlighted that the UV direct "grafting from" method allows to moderate the amount of sulfonate groups and the surface hydrophilicity presents a considerable interest for covalently immobilizing bioactive polymers onto electrospun scaffolds designed for tissue engineering applications using efficient post-electrospinning chemical modification.