Research Article Bioactivity Assessment of Poly(-caprolactone)/Hydroxyapatite Electrospun Fibers for Bone Tissue Engineering Application Mohd Izzat Hassan, Naznin Sultana, and Salehhuddin Hamdan Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Skudai, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Naznin Sultana; naznin@biomedical.utm.my Received 9 May 2014; Accepted 26 June 2014; Published 9 July 2014 Academic Editor: Hao Bai Copyright © 2014 Mohd Izzat Hassan et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Electrospinning is useful for fabricating nanoibrous structure with diferent composition and morphologies. It ofers great advantages through its geometrical structure and biomimetic property, which can provide a suitable environmental site for cell growth. he iber diameter is entangled by the concentration of PCL with some adjustment of parameters during electrospinning process. PCL with lower concentration had bead structure while higher concentration had smooth iber. he incorporation of nanoparticle hydroxyapatite (nHA) into poly(-caprolactone) iber was studied. he iber diameter of PCL was increased with the addition of nHA. Composition of iber at lower concentrations of PCL and nHA into the polymer produced iber with a homogenous distribution of nHA in PCL iber with less agglomeration. he immersion of PCL/nHA iber in simulated body luid (SBF) had bone- like apatite layer on its surface while PCL showed no results. PCL/nHA showed high water uptake and had improved wettability compared to PCL alone, suggesting that PCL/nHA ibers were more hydrophilic than PCL iber. 1. Introduction Bone is a nanostructured biomaterial with unique biological and mechanical properties. It consists of inorganic hydrox- yapatite crystal, organic type I collagen ibers, and other proteins [1]. However, at some time bone may damage and lose its function because of disease or accident. hus, there is a clinical need for the replacement of the damaged bone. Current trend in clinical practice to overcome the problem is tissue engineering. he purpose of tissue engineering is to regenerate and restore damaged tissue with the combinations of biomaterials, cells, and bioactive agents [2]. In tissue engineering, commonly biodegradable and biocompatible scafold is used to replace the defect providing a platform for cell function, adhesion, and transplantation. Nanoibrous scafold ofers great advantages such as the large surface area to volume ratio, with pore structure characteristic, and it can mimic the natural extracellular matrix which is beneicial for cell growth. Among the various techniques of scafold fabrication, electrospinning can be described as simple and most reliable for producing long and continuous ibers [3–5]. A wide range of polymers can be fabricated using this technique. In addition, the diameters of the ibers can be controlled from a few micrometers to a few nanometers, depending on the optimization during the electrospinning process and parameter such as solvent used [6]. he scafold may come from natural and synthetic materials. Synthetic polymer poly(-caprolactone) (PCL) has been widely used as biomedical materials such as suture material and drug delivery device. It is semicrystalline and bioresorbable aliphatic polyester. It has been intensively explored as tissue engineering scafold because of its slow biodegradable property (2–4 years) [7, 8]. Due to the low melting temperature at 55–60 ∘ C, the PCL can be easily molded into the desired scafold design from diferent fab- rication techniques. However, PCL is hydrophobic in nature which results in lack of wettability and poor cell attachment compared to hydrophilic material [9]. One way to modify the surface properties of hydrophobic PCL is by blending with bioresorbable ceramics, such as calcium phosphates, hydrox- yapatite (HA), and tricalcium phosphate (TCP). HA exists as a major composition of materials in human bone. he presence of HA in the polymer/composite is advantageous for osteoblast proliferation [10–12]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2014, Article ID 573238, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/573238