Design of Novel Perovskite-Based Polymeric Poly(l-Lactide-Co-Glycolide) Nanofibers with Anti-Microbial Properties for Tissue Engineering

There is a growing need for anti-microbial materials in several biomedical application areas, such are hernia, skin grafts as well as gynecological products, owing to the complications caused by infection due to surgical biomaterials. The anti-microbial effects of silver in the form of nanoparticles, although effective, can be toxic to surrounding cells. In this study, we report, for the first time, a novel biomedical application of Ag(0.3)Na(1.7)La(2)Ti(3)O(10)-layered perovskite particles, blended with poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), aimed at designing anti-microbial and tissue engineering scaffolds. The perovskite was incorporated in three concentrations of 1, 5, 10 and 15 w/w% and electrospun using dimethylformamide (DMF) and chloroform. The morphology of the resultant nanofibers revealed fiber diameters in the range of 408 to 610 nm by scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical properties of perovskite-based nanofibers also matched similar mechanical properties to human skin. We observed impressive anti-microbial activity, against Gram-negative, Gram-positive bacteria and even fungi, to Ag(0.3)Na(1.7)La(2)Ti(3)O(10) in powder as well as nanofiber-incorporated forms. Furthermore, cytotoxicity assay and immunocytochemistry revealed that perovskite-based nanofibers promoted the proliferation of human dermal fibroblasts whist maintaining normal cellular protein expression. Our study shows that perovskite-nanofibers have potential as scaffolds for biomedical applications with anti-microbial needs.