| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T22: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Next Generation Biomaterials
|
| Presentation Title |
Microscopic Characterizations of Cross-linked Gelatin Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds |
| Author(s) |
Fang Zhou, Tobias Hedkte, Christian E H Schmelzer, Juliana Martins de Souza e Silva |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Fang Zhou |
| Abstract Scope |
Damaged tissue regeneration via nanofibrous scaffolds requires designing an extracellular matrix (ECM)-like scaffold with a high surface area to volume ratio and high porosity for promoting homogeneous cell attachment and proliferation throughout the scaffold. Gelatin is a biodegradable and biocompatible natural biomaterial, which can be used to prepare nanofibrous scaffolds via electrospinning. After chemical cross-linking, the final gelatin scaffolds show random nonwoven architecture with interconnected pores that mimic the ECM of native tissues, providing a good environment for cell attachment and spreading. Imaging biomaterials composed of low-Z elements, which are nonconductive and beam sensitive, can be challenging. We show that low beam energy down to 100 eV in SEM and Zernike phase-contrast in XRM are adequate strategies to characterize the morphology of cross-linked gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds with high resolution. Results obtained allow further optimization and performance improvement of the gelatin nanofibrous scaffold. |