Two-Phase Electrospinning to Incorporate Polyelectrolyte Complexes and Growth Factors into Electrospun Chitosan Nanofibers.

Growth factors are potent signaling proteins for tissue engineering, but they are susceptible to loss of activity when exposed to solvents used for polymer processing. This work explores preservation of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) activity in chitosan nanofibers using two-phase electrospinning via a compound coaxial needle and from a water-in-oil emulsion FGF-2 in aqueous poly(vinyl alcohol) is added on either the inside (A/O) or the outside (O/A) of an organic chitosan phase, using the compound needle. FGF-2 is further stabilized by complexation to heparin-based nanoparticles.