In vitro evaluation of crosslinked electrospun fish gelatin scaffolds

Gelatin from cold water fish skin was electrospun, crosslinked and investigated as a substrate for the adhesionand proliferation of cells. Gelatin was first dissolved in either water or concentrated acetic acid andboth solutions were successfully electrospun. Cross-linking was achieved via three different routes: glutaraldehydevapor, genipin and dehydrothermal treatment. Solution's properties (surface tension, electrical conductivityand viscosity) and scaffold's properties (chemical bonds, weight loss and fiber diameters) weremeasured. Cellular viability was analyzed culturing 3T3 fibroblasts plated on the scaffolds and grown up to7 days. The cells were fixed and observed with SEM or stained for DNA and F-actin and observed with confocalmicroscopy. In all scaffolds, the cells attached and spread with varying degrees. The evaluation of cellviability showed proliferation of cells until confluence in scaffolds crosslinked by glutaraldehyde and genipin;however the rate of growth in genipin crosslinked scaffolds was slow, recovering only by day five. The resultsusing the dehydrothermal treatment were the less satisfactory. Our results show that glutaraldehyde treatedfish gelatin is the most suitable substrate, of the three studied, for fibroblast adhesion and proliferation.