“Clay-corn-caprolactone” a novel bioactive clay polymer nanofibrous scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Osteoconductive bone tissue scaffolds are of particular interest. Clay composed of aluminosilicate can play an essential role in bone repair and regeneration, enhancing osteoblastic differentiation and apatite deposition. Current research focuses on the fabrication of illite incorporated polycaprolactone/zein electrospun scaffolds. The prepared scaffolds by varying concentrations of Illite were characterized physiochemically and biologically. The composite scaffolds were analyzed for surface morphology, mechanical properties, thermal characteristic, crystal structure, surface wettability, and chemical modification. Biocompatibility of the composite scaffold was checked against the MC3T3-e1 cell line as a model. The biomineral apatite deposition was determined by incubating the scaffolds in simulated body fluid. The alkaline phosphatase staining evaluated osteoblastic differentiation. The results show that the clay composite scaffolds showed reduced fiber diameters and enhanced wettability. The addition of Illite improved the tensile strength and the Youngs Modulus of the composite scaffolds. The in vitro biomineralization of the composite scaffolds improved calcium deposition with the maximum Ca/P ratio of 1.55. The WST-1 assay and ALP staining show that the composite scaffolds have better cell viability and osteoblastic differentiation than the PCL/zein scaffolds. The overall results show that the clay-corn-caprolactone scaffold is a promising material for bone tissue engineering.