Preparation of CS/PVA Nanofibrous Membrane with Tunable Mechanical Properties for Tympanic Member Repair

The wound healing for tympanic membrane (TM) perforations is one of the most common clinic treatment. New designs of biomaterials, and lately tissue-engineered composites and grafts, have been applied for the management of TM perforation. In this work, a series of chitosan (CS)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibrous films have been fabricated as a kind of patch for repairing TM perforation. The scaffolds were crosslinked by glutaraldehyde solution to prevent them from being dissolved in the culture medium. The morphology of nanofibers from different precursors has been observed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). And the crosslinked films have been characterized by SEM and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for confirming its morphology and chemical structure. We found the films with crosslinking showed stronger tensile strength and modulus compared to the uncrosslinked one. And the mechanical properties could be tuned by the crosslinking time. In addition, after crosslinked, the films showed good thermostability and water-resistance, characterized by thermo gravimetric analyzer and contact angle meter. The cell viability studies with human umbilical vein endothelial cells, fibroblasts and mesenchymal stem cells demonstrated that the nanofibrous scaffolds formed by electrospinning process had no side effects for cell proliferation. However, a better way of crosslinking CS/PVA films needs to be further studied.