Curcuminoid-Tailored Interfacial Free Energy of Hydrophobic Fibers for Enhanced Biological Properties

Abstract

The ability of mimicking the extracellular matrix architecture has gained electrospun scaffolds a prominent space into the tissue engineering field. The high surface-to-volume aspect ratio of nanofibers increases their bioactivity while enhancing the bonding strength with the host tissue. Over the years, numerous polyesters, such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), have been consolidated as excellent matrices for biomedical applications. However, this class of polymers usually has a high hydrophobic character, which limits cell attachment and proliferation, and therefore decreases biological interactions. In this way, functionalization of polyester-based materials is often performed in order to modify their interfacial free energy and achieve more hydrophilic surfaces. Herein, we report the preparation, characterization, and in vitro assessment of electrospun PLA fibers with low contents (0.1 wt %) of different curcuminoids featuring π-conjugated systems, and a central β-diketone unit, including curcumin itself. We evaluated the potential of these materials for photochemical and biomedical purposes. For this, we investigated their optical properties, water contact angle, and surface features while assessing their in vitro behavior using SH-SY5Y cells. Our results demonstrate the successful generation of homogeneous and defect-free fluorescent fibers, which are noncytotoxic, exhibit enhanced hydrophilicity, and as such greater cell adhesion and proliferation toward neuroblastoma cells. The unexpected tailoring of the scaffolds’ interfacial free energy has been associated with the strong interactions between the PLA hydrophobic sites and the nonpolar groups from curcuminoids, which indicate its role for releasing hydrophilic sites from both parts. This investigation reveals a straightforward approach to produce photoluminescent 3D-scaffolds with enhanced biological properties by using a polymer that is essentially hydrophobic combined with the low contents of photoactive and multifunctional curcuminoids

Color Stability Enhancement of Curcumin Bioplastic Films Using Natural Hybrid Fillers of Montmorillonite and Revalorized Cellulose

“…Interestingly, the addition of 0.5 wt % CUR and 1 wt % of CUR-MMT-CEL and CUR-CEL-MMT natural hybrid fillers to the PLA matrix has promoted a decrease of the WCA to 90 ± 2.3, 82.9 ± 1.6, and 84.4 ± 1.2°, respectively. Although CEL and MMT are hydrophilic in nature as they possess a high tendency to adsorb water, 61 in consonance with the TGA results of the natural hybrid fillers (Figure 4), which would hinder the dispersibility of these fillers in the PLA matrix, the presence of CUR in the formulation played a key role in overcoming the low affinity with the PLA matrix. It has been reported in the literature 62 that this may be attributed to the strong interactions between nonpolar groups such as phenyl groups of CUR and hydrophobic sites of PLA, which improved intermolecular interactions as well as the compatibilization between the composite counterparts.…”

Cationic Waste Cotton Fabric for the Adsorptive Colorimetric Detection of Chromium Ion Traces

“…This characteristic of the cWCF-DPC colorimetric sensor strip can be explained by the greater abundance of both nitrogen-and oxygen-containing functional groups on its surface. 54,55 Thus, the WCA analysis shows that cWCF-DPC is superhydrophilic, which is conducive to the enrichment of Cr(VI) ions.…”

“…Among the evaluated samples, cWCF-DPC exhibited the highest hydrophilicity and was even shown to be superhydrophilic with a θ 3 , immediately after the beginning of the assay, of 0°. This characteristic of the cWCF-DPC colorimetric sensor strip can be explained by the greater abundance of both nitrogen- and oxygen-containing functional groups on its surface. , Thus, the WCA analysis shows that cWCF-DPC is superhydrophilic, which is conducive to the enrichment of Cr­(VI) ions.…”

Decellularized Nucleus Pulposus Matrix/Chitosan Hybrid Hydrogels for Nucleus Pulposus Tissue Engineering

“…de Deus manufactured PLA, PLA-CUR, PLA-N(CH 3 ) 2 , and PLA-N(C 2 H 5 ) 2 electrospun scaffolds and found the contact angles correlated with the hydrophobic curcuminoids. 26 NP tissue engineering scaffolds ultimately need to be implanted in vivo. The in vivo degradation and inflammatory response are also concerns of tissue engineering scaffolds.…”