Electrospun SrO-Incorporated Nanofiber Membranes for Biomedical Applications

Bioactive ceramics have gained increasing interest in biomedical applications. Strontium (Sr)-based ceramics show unique bioactivity in stimulating cell proliferation and migration and promoting angiogenesis. Incorporation of bioactive ceramics into nanofibers represents a facile approach to alter the material properties of electrospun nanofiber membranes. Herein, we prepared SrO-incorporated nanofiber membranes by electrospinning and investigated the effects of SrO particles on the physicochemical properties and cytocompatibility of these membranes. Our results indicate that simple one-stream electrospinning could smoothly introduce SrO particles into poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA)/gelatin nanofibers. SrO-incorporated membranes showed significantly improved wettability but became brittle compared with PLA/gelatin nanofiber membranes. Cells differentially responded to SrO-incorporated membranes: endothelial cells showed greater cell area and coverage on SrO-incorporated membranes; in contrast, fibroblasts were inhibited on these membranes. These findings suggest that SrO-incorporated membranes might find opportunities in specific biomedical applications in which pro-angiogenesis and antiadhesion are simultaneously demanded.