Cellulose acetate (CA) is a remarkable biomaterial most extensively used in biomedical applications due to their properties. This review highlighted the synthesis and chemical structure of CA polymer as well as focused on the mechanical, chemical, thermal, biocompatible, and biodegradable properties of electrospun CA nanofibers. These properties are essential in the evaluation of the CA nanofibers and provide information as a reference for the further utilization and improvement of CA nanofibers. Moreover, we have summarized the use of electrospun CA nanofibers in the drug delivery system as a carrier for drugs and classify them according to the drug class, including anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant, antimicrobial agents, vitamins and amino acids. Our review has been concluded that CA nanofibers cannot wholly be biodegraded within the human body due to the absence of cellulase enzyme but degraded by microorganisms. Hence, the biodegradation of CA nanofibers in vivo has addressed as a critical challenge.
Polyacrylonitrile nanofiber membrane functionalized with tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (P-Tris) was used in affinity membrane chromatography for lysozyme adsorption. The effects of pH and protein concentration on lysozyme adsorption were investigated. Based on Langmuir model, the adsorption capacity of P-Tris nanofiber membrane was estimated to be 345.83 mg/g. For the operation of dynamic membrane chromatography with three-layer P-Tris nanofiber membranes, the optimal operating conditions were at pH 9, 1.0 mL/min of feed flow rate, and 2 mg/mL of feed concentration. Chicken egg white (CEW) was applied as the crude feedstock of lysozyme in the optimized dynamic membrane chromatography. The percent recovery and purification factor of lysozyme obtained from the chromatography were 93.28% and 103.98 folds, respectively. Our findings demonstrated the effectiveness of P-Tris affinity nanofiber membrane for the recovery of lysozyme from complex CEW solution.
Towards optimizing the growth of extracellular matrix to produce repair cartilage for healing articular cartilage (AC) defects in joints, scaffold-based tissue engineering approaches have recently become a focus of clinical research. Scaffold-based approaches by electrospinning aim to support the differentiation of chondrocytes by providing an ultrastructure similar to the fibrillar meshwork in native cartilage. In a first step, we demonstrate how the blending of chitosan with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) allows concentrated chitosan solution to become electrospinnable. The chitosan-based scaffolds share the chemical structure and characteristics of glycosaminoglycans, which are important structural components of the cartilage extracellular matrix. Electrospinning produced nanofibrils of ∼100 nm thickness that are closely mimicking the size of collagen fibrils in human AC. The polymer scaffolds were stabilized in physiological conditions and their stiffness was tuned by introducing the biocompatible natural crosslinker genipin. We produced scaffolds that were crosslinked with 1.0% genipin to obtain values of stiffness that were in between the stiffness of the superficial zone human AC of 600 ± 150 kPa and deep zone AC of 1854 ± 483 kPa, whereas the stiffness of 1.5% genipin crosslinked scaffold was similar to the stiffness of deep zone AC. The scaffolds were degradable, which was indicated by changes in the fibril structure and a decrease in the scaffold stiffness after seven months. Histological and immunohistochemical analysis after three weeks of culture with human articular chondrocytes (HACs) showed a cell viability of over 90% on the scaffolds and new extracellular matrix deposited on the scaffolds.
Point-of-care biosensors are important tools developed to aid medical diagnosis and testing, food safety and environmental monitoring. Paper-based biosensors, especially nucleic acid-based lateral flow assays (LFA), are affordable, simple to produce and easy to use in remote settings. However, the sensitivity of such assays to infectious diseases has always been a restrictive challenge. Here, we have successfully electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) on nitrocellulose (NC) membrane to form a hydrophobic coating to reduce the flow rate and increase the interaction rate between the targets and gold nanoparticles-detecting probes conjugates, resulting in the binding of more complexes to the capture probes. With this approach, the sensitivity of the PCL electrospin-coated test strip has been increased by approximately ten-fold as compared to the unmodified test strip. As a proof of concept, this approach holds great potential for sensitive detection of targets at point-of-care testing.
In the last decade, magnesium alloys have been considered as absorbable metals for biomedical applications, while some have reached their clinical use as temporary bone implants. However, their widespread use is still limited by its strength and degradability. One way of improvement can be done by reinforcing magnesium alloys with carbon nanofibres to form composites. This work aims at developing carbon nanofibre-reinforced magnesium-zinc (Mg-Zn/CNF) composites with optimum strength and degradability while ensuring their biocompatibility. A response surface method was used to determine their optimum process parameters (composition, compaction pressure, and sintering temperature), and analyse the resulting properties (elastic modulus, hardness, weight loss, and cytocompatibility). Results showed that the optimal parameters were reached at 1.8% of CNF, 425 MPa of compaction pressure, and 500 °C of sintering temperature, whereby it gave an elastic modulus of 5 GPa, hardness of 60 Hv, and a weight loss of 51% after three days immersion in PBS. The composites exhibited a hydrophobic surface that controlled the liberation of Mg2+ and Zn2+ ions, leading to more than 70% osteoblast cells viability up to seven days of incubation. This study can also serve as a starting point for future researchers interested in finding methods to fabricate Mg-Zn/CNF composites with high mechanical characteristics, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility.
Electrospun polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) fibers were dip-coated by polymethyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid, poly(MMA-co-MAA), which was synthesized in different molar ratios of the monomers via free-radical polymerization. Fabricated platfrom was employed for immobilization of the dengue antibody and subsequent detection of dengue enveloped virus in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). There is a major advantage for combination of electrospun fibers and copolymers. Fiber structre of electrospun PHB provides large specific surface area available for biomolecular interaction. In addition, polymer coated parts of the platform inherited the premanent presence of surface carboxyl (-COOH) groups from MAA segments of the copolymer which can be effectively used for covalent and physical protein immobilization. By tuning the concentration of MAA monomers in polymerization reaction the concentration of surface -COOH groups can be carefully controlled. Therefore two different techniques have been used for immobilization of the dengue antibody aimed for dengue detection: physical attachment of dengue antibodies to the surface and covalent immobilization of antibodies through carbodiimide chemistry. In that perspective, several different characterization techniques were employed to investigate the new polymeric fiber platform such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), water contact angle (WCA) measurement and UV-vis titration. Regardless of the immobilization techniques, substantially higher signal intensity was recorded from developed platform in comparison to the conventional ELISA assay.
In this study, single, mix, multilayer Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) electrospun nanofibers with epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) were fabricated and characterized as a biological wound dressing scaffolds. The biological activities of the synthesized scaffolds have been verified by in vitro and in vivo studies. The chemical composition finding showed that the identified functional units within the produced nanofibers (O-H and N-H bonds) are attributed to both growth factors (GFs) in the PVA nanofiber membranes. Electrospun nanofibers' morphological features showed long protrusion and smooth morphology without beads and sprayed with an average range of 198-286 nm fiber diameter. The fiber diameters decrement and the improvement in wettability and surface roughness were recorded after GFs incorporated within the PVA Nanofibers, which indicated potential good adoption as biological dressing scaffolds due to the identified mechanical properties (Young's modulus) in between 18 and 20 MPa. The MTT assay indicated that the growth factor release from the PVA nanofibers has stimulated cell proliferation and promoted cell viability. In the cell attachment study, the GFs incorporated PVA nanofibers stimulated cell proliferation and adhered better than the PVA control sample and presented no cytotoxic effect. The in vivo studies showed that compared to the control and single PVA-GFs nanofiber, the mix and multilayer scaffolds gave a much more wound reduction at day 7 with better wound repair at day 14-21, which indicated to enhancing tissue regeneration, thus, could be a projected as a suitable burn wound dressing scaffold.
Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) isolated from plant biomass have attracted considerable interests in polymer engineering. The limitations associated with CNF-based nanocomposites are often linked to the time-consuming preparation methods and lack of desired surface functionalities. Herein, we demonstrate the feasibility of preparing a multifunctional CNF-zinc oxide (CNF-ZnO) nanocomposite with dual antibacterial and reinforcing properties via a facile and efficient ultrasound route. We characterized and examined the antibacterial and mechanical reinforcement performances of our ultrasonically induced nanocomposite. Based on our electron microscopy analyses, the ZnO deposited onto the nanofibrous network had a flake-like morphology with particle sizes ranging between 21 to 34 nm. pH levels between 8-10 led to the formation of ultrafine ZnO particles with a uniform size distribution. The resultant CNF-ZnO composite showed improved thermal stability compared to pure CNF. The composite showed potent inhibitory activities against Gram-positive (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)) and Gram-negative Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) bacteria. A CNF-ZnO-reinforced natural rubber (NR/CNF-ZnO) composite film, which was produced via latex mixing and casting methods, exhibited up to 42% improvement in tensile strength compared with the neat NR. The findings of this study suggest that ultrasonically-synthesized palm CNF-ZnO nanocomposites could find potential applications in the biomedical field and in the development of high strength rubber composites.
In the present study, magnetic oil palm empty fruits bunch cellulose nanofiber (M-OPEFB-CNF) composite was isolated by sol-gel method using cellulose nanofiber (CNF) obtained from oil palm empty fruits bunch (OPEFB) and Fe3O4 as magnetite. Several analytical methods were utilized to characterize the mechanical, chemical, thermal, and morphological properties of the isolated CNF and M-OPEFB-CNF. Subsequently, the isolated M-OPEFB-CNF composite was utilized for the adsorption of Cr(VI) and Cu(II) from aqueous solution with varying parameters, such as pH, adsorbent doses, treatment time, and temperature. Results showed that the M-OPEFB-CNF as an effective bio-sorbent for the removal of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The adsorption isotherm modeling revealed that the Freundlich equation better describes the adsorption of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) on M-OPEFB-CNF composite. The kinetics studies revealed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model was a better-described kinetics model for the removal of Cu(II) and Cr(VI) using M-OPEFB-CNF composite as bio-sorbent. The findings of the present study showed that the M-OPEFB-CNF composite has the potential to be utilized as a bio-sorbent for heavy metals removal.
This review outlines new developments in the biomedical applications of environmentally friendly ('green') chitosan and chitosan-blend electrospun nanofibers. In recent years, research in functionalized nanofibers has contributed to the development of new drug delivery systems and improved scaffolds for regenerative medicine, which is currently one of the most rapidly growing fields in all of the life sciences. Chitosan is a biopolymer with non-toxic, antibacterial, biodegradable and biocompatible properties. Due to these properties, they are widely applied for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering scaffolds, wound dressings, and antibacterial coatings. Electrospinning is a novel technique for chitosan nanofiber fabrication. These nanofibers can be used in unique applications in biomedical fields due to their high surface area and porosity. The present work reviews recent reports on the biomedical applications of chitosan-based nanofibers in detail.
The electrospinning PAN nanofiber membrane (P-CN) was hydrolysed to convert carboxylic groups as reaction sites and covalently graft chitosan molecule. The chitosan derivatives with quaternary ammonium groups exerted greater efficiency against bacteria as compared to pure chitosan. Hence, the chitosan modified membrane (P-CS), can be functionalized with quaternary amine (i.e., glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride, GTMAC) to form quaternized chitosan nanofiber membrane (designated as P-HTCC) under various conditions (acidic, neutral, and alkaline). N-quaternized derivatives of chitosan modified membrane (N-HTCC) showed 72% and 60% degree of quaternization (DQ) under acidic and neutral conditions, respectively. Under alkaline condition, additional quaternization of N, O-HTCC via its amino and hydroxyl groups, has improved up to 90% DQ of the chitosan. The antibacterial activity of the quaternized chitosan modified membrane prepared from acetic acid medium is stronger than that prepared from water and alkaline media. Also, antibacterial activity of quaternized chitosan is stronger than chitosan modified membrane against E. coli. The microbiological assessments showed that the water-stable P-HTCC nanofiber membrane under modification in acidic medium exerted antibacterial activity up to 99.95% against E. coli. Therefore, the P-HTCC membrane exhibited high potential to be integrated into microfiltration membrane to effectively disinfect E. coli.
Polymer composites are favorite materials for sensing applications due to their low cost and easy fabrication. In the current study, composite nanofibers consisting of polyethylene oxide (PEO), oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles with 1% and 3% of fillers (i.e., PEO-CuO-MWCNT: 1%, and PEO-CuO-MWCNT: 3%) were successfully developed through electrospinning for humidity sensing applications. The composite nanofibers were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDX analysis. Firstly, they were loaded on an interdigitated electrode (IDE), and then the humidity sensing efficiency was investigated through a digital LCR meter (E4980) at different frequencies (100 Hz-1 MHz), as well as the percentage of relative humidity (RH). The results indicated that the composite nanofibers containing 1% and 3% MWCNT, combined with CuO in PEO polymer matrix, showed potent resistive and capacitive response along with high sensitivity to humidity at room temperature in an RH range of 30-90%. More specifically, the PEO-CuO-MWCNT: 1% nanocomposite displayed a resistive rapid response time within 3 s and a long recovery time of 22 s, while the PEO-CuO-MWCNT: 3% one exhibited 20 s and 11 s between the same RH range, respectively.
Valvular dysfunction as the prominent reason of heart failure may causes morbidity and mortality around the world. The inability of human body to regenerate the defected heart valves necessitates the development of the artificial prosthesis to be replaced. Besides, the lack of capacity to grow, repair or remodel of an artificial valves and biological difficulty such as infection or inflammation make the development of tissue engineering heart valve (TEHV) concept. This research presented the use of compound of poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and maghemite nanoparticle (γ-Fe₂O₃) as the potential biomaterials to develop three-dimensional (3D) aortic heart valve scaffold. Electrospinning was used for fabricating the 3D scaffold. The steepest ascent followed by the response surface methodology was used to optimize the electrospinning parameters involved in terms of elastic modulus. The structural and porosity properties of fabricated scaffold were characterized using FE-SEM and liquid displacement technique, respectively. The 3D scaffold was then seeded with aortic smooth muscle cells (AOSMCs) and biological behavior in terms of cell attachment and proliferation during 34 days of incubation was characterized using MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay and confocal laser microscopy. Furthermore, the mechanical properties in terms of elastic modulus and stiffness were investigated after cell seeding through macro-indentation test. The analysis indicated the formation of ultrafine quality of nanofibers with diameter distribution of 178 ± 45 nm and 90.72% porosity. In terms of cell proliferation, the results exhibited desirable proliferation (109.32 ± 3.22% compared to the control) of cells over the 3D scaffold in 34 days of incubation. The elastic modulus and stiffness index after cell seeding were founded to be 22.78 ± 2.12 MPa and 1490.9 ± 12 Nmm², respectively. Overall, the fabricated 3D scaffold exhibits desirable structural, biological and mechanical properties and has the potential to be used in vivo.
The major hurdle in melt-processing of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) nanocomposite lies on the high melt viscosity of the UHMWPE, which may contribute to poor dispersion and distribution of the nanofiller. In this study, UHMWPE/cellulose nanofiber (UHMWPE/CNF) bionanocomposites were prepared by two different blending methods: (i) melt blending at 150 °C in a triple screw kneading extruder, and (ii) non-melt blending by ethanol mixing at room temperature. Results showed that melt-processing of UHMWPE without CNF (MB-UHMWPE/0) exhibited an increment in yield strength and Young's modulus by 15% and 25%, respectively, compared to the Neat-UHMWPE. Tensile strength was however reduced by almost half. Ethanol mixed sample without CNF (EM-UHMWPE/0) on the other hand showed slight decrement in all mechanical properties tested. At 0.5% CNF inclusion, the mechanical properties of melt-blended bionanocomposites (MB-UHMWPE/0.5) were improved as compared to Neat-UHMWPE. It was also found that the yield strength, elongation at break, Young's modulus, toughness and crystallinity of MB-UHMWPE/0.5 were higher by 28%, 61%, 47%, 45% and 11%, respectively, as compared to the ethanol mixing sample (EM-UHMWPE/0.5). Despite the reduction in tensile strength of MB-UHMWPE/0.5, the value i.e., 28.4 ± 1.0 MPa surpassed the minimum requirement of standard specification for fabricated UHMWPE in surgical implant application. Overall, melt-blending processing is more suitable for the preparation of UHMWPE/CNF bionanocomposites as exhibited by their characteristics presented herein. A better mechanical interlocking between UHMWPE and CNF at high temperature mixing with kneading was evident through FE-SEM observation, explains the higher mechanical properties of MB-UHMWPE/0.5 as compared to EM-UHMWPE/0.5.
Polylactic acid (PLA), a potential alternative material for single use plastics, generally portrays a slow crystallization rate during melt-processing. The use of a nanomaterial such as cellulose nanofibers (CNF) may affect the crystallization rate by acting as a nucleating agent. CNF at a certain wt.% has been evidenced as a good reinforcement material for PLA; nevertheless, there is a lack of information on the correlation between the amount of CNF in PLA that promotes its functionality as reinforcement material, and its effect on PLA nucleation for improving the crystallization rate. This work investigated the nucleation effect of PLA incorporated with CNF at different fiber loading (1-6 wt.%) through an isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics study using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis. Mechanical properties of the PLA/CNF nanocomposites were also investigated. PLA/CNF3 exhibited the highest crystallization onset temperature and enthalpy among all the PLA/CNF nanocomposites. PLA/CNF3 also had the highest crystallinity of 44.2% with an almost 95% increment compared to neat PLA. The highest crystallization rate of 0.716 min-1 was achieved when PLA/CNF3 was isothermally melt crystallized at 100 °C. The crystallization rate was 65-fold higher as compared to the neat PLA (0.011 min-1). At CNF content higher than 3 wt.%, the crystallization rate decreased, suggesting the occurrence of agglomeration at higher CNF loading as evidenced by the FESEM micrographs. In contrast to the tensile properties, the highest tensile strength and Young's modulus were recorded by PLA/CNF4 at 76.1 MPa and 3.3 GPa, respectively. These values were, however, not much different compared to PLA/CNF3 (74.1 MPa and 3.3 GPa), suggesting that CNF at 3 wt.% can be used to improve both the crystallization rate and the mechanical properties. Results obtained from this study revealed the dual function of CNF in PLA nanocomposite, namely as nucleating agent and reinforcement material. Being an organic and biodegradable material, CNF has an increased advantage for use in PLA as compared to non-biodegradable material and is foreseen to enhance the potential use of PLA in single use plastics applications.
The nanoenvironment of nanobiocatalysts, such as local hydrophobicity, pH and charge density, plays a significant role in optimizing the enzymatic selectivity and specificity. In this study, Kluyveromyces lactis β-galactosidase (Gal) was assembled onto polystyrene nanofibers (PSNFs) to form PSNF-Gal nanobiocatalysts. We proposed that local hydrophobicity on the nanofiber surface could expel water molecules so that the transgalactosylation would be preferable over hydrolysis during the bioconversion of lactose, thus improve the galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) yield. PSNFs were fabricated by electro-spinning and the operational parameters were optimized to obtain the nanofibers with uniform size and ordered alignment. The resulting nanofibers were functionalized for enzyme immobilization through a chemical oxidation method. The functionalized PSNF improved the enzyme adsorption capacity up to 3100mg/g nanofiber as well as enhanced the enzyme stability with 80% of its original activity. Importantly, the functionalized PSNF-Gal significantly improved the GOS yield and the production rate was up to 110g/l/h in comparison with 37g/l/h by free β-galactosidase. Our research findings demonstrate that the localized nanoenvironment of the PSNF-Gal nanobiocatalysts favour transgalactosylation over hydrolysis in lactose bioconversion.
In this study, chitosan/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/zeolite nanofibrous composite membrane was fabricated via electrospinning. First, crude chitosan was hydrolyzed with NaOH for 24h. Afterward, hydrolyzed chitosan solution was blended with aqueous PVA solution in different weight ratios. Morphological analysis of chitosan/PVA electrospun nanofiber showed a defect-free nanofiber material with 50:50 weight ratio of chitosan/PVA. Subsequently, 1wt.% of zeolite was added to this blended solution of 50:50 chitosan/PVA. The resulting nanofiber was characterized with field emission scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, swelling test, and adsorption test. Fine, bead-free nanofiber with homogeneous nanofiber was electrospun. The resulting membrane was stable in distilled water, acidic, and basic media in 20 days. Moreover, the adsorption ability of nanofibrous membrane was studied over Cr (VI), Fe (III), and Ni (II) ions using Langmuir isotherm. Kinetic parameters were estimated using the Lagergren first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. Kinetic study showed that adsorption rate was high. However, the resulting nanofiber membrane showed less adsorption capacity at high concentration. The adsorption capacity of nanofiber was unaltered after five recycling runs, which indicated the reusability of chitosan/PVA/zeolite nanofibrous membrane. Therefore, chitosan/PVA/zeolite nanofiber can be a useful material for water treatment at moderate concentration of heavy metals.
The application of magnetized graphene (G) layers synthesized on the carbon nanofibers (CNFs) (m-G/CNF) was investigated as novel adsorbent for the magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water samples followed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). Six important parameters, affecting the extraction efficiency of PAHs, including: amount of adsorbent, adsorption and desorption times, type and volume of the eluent solvent and salt content of the sample were evaluated. The optimum extraction conditions were obtained as: 5min for extraction time, 20mg for sorbent amount, dichloromethane as desorption solvent, 1mL for desorption solvent volume, 5min for desorption time and 15% (w/v) for NaCl concentration. Good performance data were obtained at the optimized conditions. The calibration curves were linear over the concentration ranges from 0.012 to 100ngmL(-1) with correlation coefficients (r) between 0.9950 and 0.9967 for all the analytes. The limits of detection (LODs, S/N=3) of the proposed method for the studied PAHs were 0.004-0.03ngmL(-1). The relative standard deviations (RSDs) for five replicates at two concentration levels (0.1 and 50ngmL(-1)) of PAHs were ranged from 3.4 to 5.7%. Appropriate relative recovery values, in the range of 95.5-99.9%, were also obtained for the real water sample analysis.
A novel polyoxometalate-based electrode was developed by incorporating phosphotungstic acid (PWA) in nylon-6,6 nanofiber, followed by carbonization. The developed PWA-carbon nanofiber (PWA-CNF) showed the characteristics of the dual-scale porosity of micro- and mesoporous substrate with surface area of around 684 m2 g-1. The compound exhibited excellent stability in vanadium electrolyte and battery cycling. Evaluation of electrocatalytic properties toward V2+/V3+ and VO2+/VO2+ redox couples indicated promising advantages in electron transfer kinetics and increasing energy efficiency, particularly for the VO2+/VO2+ couple. Moreover, the developed electrode exhibited substantially improved energy efficiency (14% higher than that of pristine carbon felt) in the single cell vanadium redox flow battery. This outstanding performance was attributed to high surface area and abundant oxygen-containing linkages in the developed electrode.
Natural polysaccharide pectin has for the first time been grafted with polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) via ring-opening polymerization of β-butyrolactone. This copolymer, pectin-polyhydroxybutyrate (pec-PHB), was blended with PHB in various proportions and electrospun to produce nanofibers that exhibited uniform and bead-free nanostructures, suggesting the miscibility of PHB and pec-PHB. These nanofiber blends exhibited reduced fiber diameters from 499 to 336-426 nm and water contact angles from 123.8 to 88.2° on incorporation of pec-PHB. They also displayed 39-335% enhancement of elongation at break relative to pristine PHB nanofibers. pec-PHB nanofibers were found to be noncytotoxic and biocompatible. Human retinal pigmented epithelium (ARPE-19) cells were seeded onto pristine PHB and pec-PHB nanofibers as scaffold and showed good proliferation. Higher proportions of pec-PHB (pec-PHB10 and pec-PHB20) yielded higher densities of cells with similar characteristics to normal RPE cells. We propose, therefore, that nanofibers of pec-PHB have significant potential as retinal tissue engineering scaffold materials.