Electrospun scaffolds cellular infiltration

Early reports on electrospun scaffolds described poor cellular infiltration [175], Frequently, cells adhered at the surface and thus coated the nano- or submicrometer-scaled electrospun meshes due to the small pore size. In order to overcome this limitation, pore sizes were increased by combining ES with other methods. These approaches included the coating of microfibers with nanofibers [183], Other strategies combine ES with leaching [184, 185], freeze-drying [186], blowing agents [187], or ice templates [188],... 

Pham QP, Sharma U, Mikos AG (2006) Electrospun poly(epsilon-caprolactone) microfiber and multilayer nanofiber/microfiber scaffolds characterization of scaffolds and measurement of cellular infiltration. Biomacromolecules 7(10) 2796-2805... 

Balguid A et al (2009) Tailoring fiber diameter in electrospun poly(epsilon-caprolactone) scaffolds for optimal cellular infiltration in cardiovascular tissue engineering. Tissue Eng A 15(2) 437-444... 

Cell-culture studies have indicated that such structures promote cellular infiltration into the fibrillar network and can become densely populated in a reasonably short time. A number of natural and synthetic polymers have been successfully electrospun into fibrous scaffolds for the purpose collagen, elastin, gelatin, fibrinogen, polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, polylactide-co-glycolide and polylactide-co-caprolac-tone. Recently published work indicates that an electrospun web formed... 

Methods to enhance cellular infiltration of electrospun scaffolds... 

Zhong S, Zhang Y, Lim CT. Fabrication of large pores in electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for cellular infiltration a review. Tissue Eng Part B Rev 2012 18 77-87. 

The morphology of this screen determines the orientation of the obtained fibers (e.g., Figure 13.5f). 3D scaffolds can easily be formed from the electrospun fibers during the deposition. The formed electrospun scaffolds are very useful for applications requiring minimal cellular infiltration such as vascular grafts. However, for... 

Nisbet DR et al (2009) Neurite infiltration and cellular response to electrospun polycaprolactone scaffolds implanted into the brain. Biomaterials 30(27) 4573 580... 

S.J. (2012) The effect of controlled release of PDGF-BB from heparin-conjugated electrospun PCL/gelatin scaffolds on cellular bioactivity and infiltration. i)/omateriafs, 33, 6709-6720. 

A bilayer scaffold including an outer layer of an electrospun PEUU scaffold and an inner layer of porous PEUU scaffold was developed to address the cellular-ization issue [15]. The electrospun layer provided the mechanical support, while the porous scaffold layer supplied space for cell loading and infiltration. Prior to implantation, the cells including primary cells or stem cells were uniformly seeded into the porous layer using a customized vacuum device [15,40 2]. Rat vascular smooth muscle cells were seeded into the bilayer conduit and cultured in vitro for 2 days, and then this cellularized scaffold was implanted into the rat aorta model [42]. After 8 weeks, the patency of the cellularized scaffolds increased by 75% compared to 38% of the acellular scaffold. The failed scaffolds were blocked due to the intimal hyperplasia. The patent scaffolds contained a neointimal layer consisting of multiple layers of the immature contractile smooth muscle... 

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