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Womens Health

Undergraduate Lightning Talks

3 - Effects of Gelatin Solution Concentration on Electrospun Nanofibers Diameters for Preterm Premature Rupture of Membrane Treatments (PPROM)

Saturday, October 26, 2024
12:45 PM – 1:00 PM EST
Location: Room 341

Introduction:  Unmet needs in women's health and reproductive health fields require prioritization. In the United States, over 10 % of pregnant patients go through preterm birth, often due to preterm, prelabor rupture of the fetal membranes (PPROM) earlier than 37 weeks of gestation, hence increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity for both mothers and infants . Rupture is mainly the result of the early activation of enzyme collagenase , leading to premature weakening and failure of these membranes . Current treatments, such as cortisone or antibiotics, offer limited solutions. Biomaterials treatments and solutions are available for membrane complications such as adhesives, fibrin tissue glues, and electrospun fibrous polymer scaffolds, but they are still under preclinical and clinical trials.
Electrospun fibrous mats are widely used to mimic biological tissues and understand their mechanical properties. Electrospinning has been a standard tool for recreating the three-dimensional geometry of the tissues' extracellular matrix (ECM) by using proteins mainly found in the body, such as gelatin and elastin. By studying the behavior of electrospun fibers under varying conditions, we can get practical insights into the functioning of these biomaterials. In this project, we examine the variability of electrospun fibers' diameters depending on the gelatin concentration. This study will enable us to improve the developments of biomaterials for both in vivo and in vitro applications for PPROM treatments.

Materials and

Methods:  Solutions with various gelatin (300 g bloom; Sigma Aldrich, St.Louis, MO) concentrations (5 % w/v, 8 % w/v, 10 % w/v, 15 % w/v, and 18 % w/v) were created. The solutions were added to 90 % w/v acetic acid solutions along with 15 % w/v Citric Acid (Sigma Aldrich, St.Louis, MO) and 7.5 % w/v Sodium Hypophosphite (Sigma Aldrich, St.Louis, MO) for crosslinking.
The solutions were dissolved at room temperature for 200 RPM for over 3 hours, stored at 4 °C overnight, and electrospun for 6 hours. The resultant fibers were put in a 150 °C oven for 4 hours to chemically crosslink the fibers. The fibrous mats were then imaged through ESEM (Thermofisher Quattro S ESEM) and then analyzed on ImageJ (n= 4 to 6 SEM images and at least 30 fiber measurements per image) to measure the nanofibers' diameters. Fiber diameters were measured from both ends while maintaining a consistent orientation perpendicular to the original direction of the fibers. This ensured the coherence and accuracy of the diameter values across the dataset.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions: Fiber diameter increased with gelatin concentration (Fig. 1). The 18 wt % solution had the largest diameters and are significantly different than the other groups. The 15 wt % also had a notable difference compared to the smaller concentrations. Meanwhile, there was not a significant difference found between 5 wt% and 8 wt% (p = 0.0822) and between 8 wt% and 10 wt% (p = 0.5752), which all could be a result either due to the overlapping variability of these three samples, data size collection, or even related to chemical saturation effects due to the lower concentration of gelatin in the solution.
We observed an increasing trend in fiber diameter with gelatin weight percent. Through this, we could correlate the mechanical and structural aspects of the fibrous mats with the polymer solutions compositions. Ongoing efforts include doing both uniaxial and biaxial tensile testing on these mats and reproducing them on a finite element modeling. This approach serves to deepen our grasp on the mechanical properties and observe how they differ depending on the concentration of the polymer solution. The gelatin fibrous mats have a great ability to reproduce and mimic the natural structure of the ECM, which is relevant of the unmet needs in the women’s health field. By adjusting the compositions of the polymer solutions and the geometry of the nanofibers, we can create biomaterials and composites to prevent or repair amniotic sac tissues in biomechanical issue-related disease such as PPROM.

Acknowledgements (Optional):  

References:
- “Preterm Birth.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/preterm-birth/index.html
- “Premature Rupture of Membranes (Prom)/Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes (PPROM).” Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 24 Aug. 2014, www.chop.edu/conditions-diseases/premature-rupture membranes-prompreterm-premature-rupture-membranes-pprom.
- Waters, Thaddeus P., and Brian M. Mercer. “The management of preterm premature rupture of the membranes near the limit of fetal viability.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 201, no. 3, Sept. 2009, pp. 230–240,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2009.06.049.
- Strauss, Jerome F. “Extracellular Matrix Dynamics and Fetal Membrane Rupture.” Reproductive Sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), U.S. National Library of Medicine, Feb.2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3826277/.
- Oyen, Michelle L. “Biomaterials Science and Engineering to Address Unmet Needs in Women’s Health.” MRS Bulletin, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2022, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9521852/.