PCL/chitosan/Zn-doped nHA electrospun nanocomposite scaffold promotes adipose derived stem cells adhesion and proliferation

•PCL/chitosan/Zn doped nHA are prepared and electrospun.•Mechanical properties of PCL/chitosan blends enhance when nZnHA is introduced.•ADMSCs’ viability and attachment are significantly enhanced on PCL/chitosan/nZnHA nanofibrous scaffold.•ADMSCs proliferate more readily on PCL/chitosan/nZnHA nanofibrous scaffold. Chitosan (Ch), and poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL), widely used as biomaterials with desirable properties for tissue engineering applications, were both blended with zinc-doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles(nZnHA) and electrospun into nanofibrous scaffolds using formic acid/acetic acid. The rationale behind this study was to demonstrate that presence of small quantities of Zn2+ ions doped in HA nanoparticles can improve biocompatibility of PCL/Ch blends. SEM observation revealed that average fiber diameter was increased from about 136nm for a PCL/Ch blend, to around 210nm for PCL/Ch/nZnHA nanocomposite. PCL/Ch/nZnHA scaffolds offered higher elastic modulus (about 3-fold) and tensile strength (nearly 1.5-fold) than the corresponding PCL/Ch scaffolds. In-vitro biocompatibility studies using human adipose derived stem cells (hAD-MSCs), demonstrated that the presence of only 5wt% nZnHA in PCL/Ch/nZnHA nanocomposites enhanced hAD-MSCs’ attachment compared to PCL/Ch and PCL/Ch/nHA. Finally, hAD-MSCs proliferation occurred at significantly higher rates of 1.5, 1.3 and 1.2 times on PCL/Ch/nZnHA scaffold compared to PCL, PCL/Ch and PCL/Ch/nHA, respectively.