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Active loading graphite/hydroxyapatite into the stable hydroxyethyl cellulose scaffold nanofibers for artificial cornea application

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Abstract

The design of biocompatible porous scaffolds that encourage cell adhesion for corneal tissue engineering applications continues to be challenging. In addition to porous hydrogels, nanofibers that can simulate the extracellular matrix structure for cell adhesion would be beneficial. Graphite and nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) are two bioactive materials that have been used to improve cell adhesion in scaffolds for corneal tissue engineering. In this study, nanofibers were fabricated from hydroxyethyl cellulose and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and cross-linked by glutaraldehyde bound to graphite and nano-hydroxyapatite. This scaffold surrounded a transparent hydrogel core from PVA that was cross-linked by freeze-thawing cycles. The chemical and mechanical evaluations demonstrated that nanofibers met the requirements as a scaffold for corneal tissue engineering. The results showed that when the concentration of nHA was approximately 1.66 wt%, the morphology of human epithelial cells did not change, and clot formation occurred around the scaffold during the 1-week in vivo implantation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nano Fusion Technology Research Group, Division of Frontier Fibers, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Interdisciplinary Cluster for Cutting Edge Research (ICCER), Shinshu University, Tokida 3-15-1, Ueda, Nagano, 386-8567, Japan

    Davood Kharaghani & Ick Soo Kim

  2. Optometry, School of Optometry and Vision Science, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Debarun Dutta & Mark D. P. Willcox

  3. School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Kitty K. K. Ho

  4. National Engineering Laboratory for Modern Silk, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Ke-Qin Zhang & Wei Kai

  5. Key Laboratory of Eco-textiles of Ministry of Education, College of Textiles and Clothing, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Xuehong Ren

Authors
  1. Davood Kharaghani
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  2. Debarun Dutta
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Correspondence to Mark D. P. Willcox or Ick Soo Kim.

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Kharaghani, D., Dutta, D., Ho, K.K.K. et al. Active loading graphite/hydroxyapatite into the stable hydroxyethyl cellulose scaffold nanofibers for artificial cornea application. Cellulose 27, 3319–3334 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-02999-w

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