Morphological properties of almond oil constituted nanofibrous scaffold for bone tissue engineering
One of the greatest challenges in the bone remodeling is to fabricate the structure resembling the extracellular matrix. This research aims to fabricate a novel bone scaffold comprising polyurethane (PU) added with almond nanofibers via electrospinning technique. The PU/almond oil nanocomposites showed smaller fiber diameter (629 ± 148.92 nm) compared to the pristine PU (890 ± 116.91 nm). The interaction of PU with almond oil was confirmed in the infrared spectrum by the strong formation of a hydrogen bond. The wettability analysis showed that the prepared PU/almond oil nanocomposites were hydrophobic in nature (107° ± 1) compared with the pure PU (100° ± 0.5774). Thermal analysis revealed enhancement of the thermal stability with the addition of the almond oil. The addition of almond oil into the PU matrix increased the surface roughness and blood compatibility properties. Further, the fabricated PU/almond oil nanocomposites showed less toxicity to red blood cells (RBCs), as indicated in the hemolytic assay. Hence, the novel fabricated scaffold possesses better physicochemical properties and is nontoxic to the RBCs, which may be utilized for bone tissue regeneration.