In this work, biomedical grade chitosan, CS (provided by Altakytin, Portugal) powders were used for the production of biodegradable scaffolds to support guided peripheral nerve tissue regeneration. Electrospinning technique was chosen to produce CS nanofibers using a 5% chitosan solution in trifluoroacetic-acid and dicloromethane as solvents, in the proportion of 7:3. Yarns of aligned chitosan fibers were obtained using an in-house developed apparatus, and following the same protocol used to obtain random nanofibers. Nanofibers were characterized using techniques such as FTIR, SEM, DSC and contact angle. In vitro tests to characterize L929 cells viability (MTS assay) and proliferation (DNA quantification) on nanofibers scaffolds’ were performed.

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided under the EC funded Biohybrid project (Biohybrid templates for peripheral nerve regeneration, grant agreement number 278612).