Development and optimization of gelatin nanofibrous scaffold for tissue engineering applications

Electrospinning of aqueous gelatin nanofiber has always been a challenge due to its polycationic nature. This requires a complex solvent system which often was cytotoxic. In our present work, the ambient parameters were modified to make the aqueous gelatin electrospinnable. The design of experiments and process optimization was performed using the Taguchi method and the critical parameters affecting the diameter and morphology of the nanofibers were studied. This was further analyzed with a custom response surface design. The gelatin nanofiber mat was fabricated with the optimized parameters and was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Further, the fabricated scaffold was studied for its cytotoxicity, cell attachment, and proliferation, which rendered desirable results, thus qualifying the gelatin nanofiber mat to be a promising candidate to be a tissue engineering scaffold.