A comprehensive evaluation on the bioactivity, antibacterial efficacy and cell viability of PVA-PVP-chitosan electrospun scaffolds reinforced with calcium/zinc silicate

Various silicate compounds have been extensively used for scaffold fabrication via electrospinning. However, harnessing the bioactive properties of Calcium silicate (CS) and Zinc silicate (ZS) are less explored in electrospinning. This work discusses the fabrication of PVA-PVP-Chitosan polymer-matrix scaffolds via electrospinning incorporating various percentages of Calcium Silicate/Zinc silicate and the scaffolds are named as PPCC1, PPCC2, and PPCC3 for CS incorporated scaffolds and PPCZ1, PPCZ2 and PPCZ3 for ZS incorporated scaffolds. The biomineralization assay prove bioactivity of the scaffolds and apatite formation was observed within 3 days of immersion. Analysis of the fiber diameter show the direct influence of the presence of ceramics in the scaffolds. When the concentration of CS changed from 0. 5% to 2%, the fiber diameter reduces from 249 to 70 nm. At higher ceramics content, PPCC3 has a tensile strength of 2.79 MPa whereas the tensile strength of PPCZ3 is 2.2 MPa due to the presence of nodules in the scaffold that reduce mechanical stability. All the scaffolds are hydrophilic, their contact angle ranging from 71 − 46°. Due to faster dissociation of Ca ions, CS incorporated scaffold show a faster biodegradation rate than ZS incorporated scaffolds. Since both types scaffolds exhibit < 70% cell viability, they can be effectively used for bone regeneration applications without any adverse effects. ALP activity for CS incorporated scaffold is observed to be 143.07 ± 4.41 U/L on 3rd day and 253.27 ± 5.69 U/L on 7th day. The activity of ZS incorporated scaffold is shown to be 216.03 ± 4.34 U/L on 3rd day and 362.41 ± 3.87 U/L on 7th day.