Electrospinning of Hyaluronic acid (HA) and HA/Gelatin Blends*

It was found that the processability of HA solution with high viscosity had been improved greatly by using a DMF-water solvent mixture or/and by adding gelatin(GE) into the HA solution. Nano-fibrous membranes with different average fiber diameters and different HA/GE compositions could be obtained. Measurements on viscosity indicated that the HA solution in DMF-water mixed solvent still showed high viscosity. The decrease in surface tension contributed to the fiber formation of HA and HA/GE by electrospinning. Therefore, this study not only provided a novel and simpler way to electrospin the natural polyanion HA solution, but also provided the fundamental physical insight and solution to this spinning difficulty. The HA-GE nanofibrous membranes at different HA/GE compositions are expected to be useful in the biomedical field as novel scaffolds for many applications.