How direct electrospinning in methanol bath affects the physico-chemical and biological properties of silk fibroin nanofibrous scaffolds

Developing a rapid and easy approach to fabricate crystalline silk fibroin nanofibres without any needs for post-processing stage is focused. Thus, methanol bath was chosen as the collector and then the effect of soaking time on the properties of fibroin fibres was investigated. The results indicated that the wet-electrospun mats had higher fibre diameter than mats made by conventional electrospinning system. With prolonging the electrospinning time in methanol bath, a slight increase in the average fibre diameter and crystallinity were observed. In addition, the stiffness of the wet-electrospun mats increased with increasing soaking time, while the breaking stress decreased. The cellular viability of the osteoblast-like cells (MG63) on fibroin mats improved during wet-electrospinning process, while no significant difference was observed for cell attachment. Accordingly, it seems that wet electrospinning in methanol for 30 min is optimal for bone regeneration on account of viability and mechanical property.