Fatemeh Nasiri - Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
Saeed Ajeli - Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
Dariush Semnani - Department of Textile Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
Mohsen Jahanshahi - Nanotechnology Research Institute, School of Chemical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran.
Hamed Morad - Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.

Electrospinning (ES) is a process affected by different factors including solutions, apparatus, and environmental parameters. Selecting ES parameters having effects on final scaffold properties is a multicriteria decision-making problem. The use of statistical methods for multi-criteria decision-making can save time, energy and cost of the process and improve the efficiency of the final product. So in this study, the fuzzy VIKOR method with Shannon entropy weighting method was used for optimizing electrospun scaffold for bone tissue healing. For this, in the first step by trial and error, the percentage of polycaprolactone (PCL) in solution was selected. Then composite scaffolds were prepared with different hydroxyapatite (HA) concentrations and ES parameters (flow rate, ES distance, and the voltage). ES parameters, as well as HA concentration affected the studied characteristics of scaffolds. The obtained data were used for deploying weights of seven criteria based on Shannon entropy concept in fuzzy method optimization.  Fiber diameter and distribution, surface and volume porosity, fiber alignment, surface roughness, and stable ES process were the ۷ criteria considered in this study and ۴۰ electrospun scaffolds were ranked with the fuzzy method by these criteria, then best-ranked samples redesigned. The redesigned samples were studied with SEM, AFM, TGA, Raman spectroscopy, water contact angle, tensile test, MTT assay, live/dead cells, and ALP activity tests. The diameter of the redesigned optimized scaffolds was obtained between ۲۰۴ and ۱۳ nm; and the surface and volume porosity were ۶۷%-۹۱% and ۶۵%-۸۶%, respectively. No toxicity was found and scaffolds had a positive effect on cell growth

Electrospinning, PCL/HA scaffold, engineered textile, Hard Tissue Engineering, Fuzzy modeling