Tissue engineering scaffolds electrospun nanofibers

S. Kumbar, R. James, S. Nukavarapu, C. Laurencin, Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds engineering soft tissues, Biomed. Mater. 3 (2008) 034002. 

Kumbar, S.G., James, R., Nukavarapu, S.P., Laurencin, C.T., 2008. Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds engineering soft tissues. Biomedical Materials 3, 034002. 

Ramdhanie LI et al (2006) Thermal and mechanical characterization of electrospun blends of poly(lactic acid) and poly(glycolic acid). Polym J 38(11) 1137-1145 Barnes CP et al (2007) Nanofiber technology designing the next generation of tissue engineering scaffolds. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 59(14) 1413—1433... 

P(3HB-co-4HB) copolymers are known to be biocompatible material. The biocompatible nature of these copolymers allows it to be utilized for various medical applications. These PHA polymers have been tested in tissue engineering applications as surgical sutures, bone plates, implants, gauzes, osteosynthetic materials, and also as matrix material assisting slow release of drugs and hormones (Zinn et al. 2001 Williams and Martin 2002 Sudesh 2004 Chen and Wu 2005 Freier 2006). Recently, electrospun nanofibers of P(3HB-co-4HB) have been evaluated as scaffolds in vivo and in vitro (Ying et al. 2008). 

Motivated by the development of cardiac tissue engineering based on electrically active electrospun nanofibers, Fernandes and co-workers reported on the preparation of electrospun hyperbranched PLL nanofibers containing polyaniline in the form of nanotubes.Both electroactivity and biocompatibility demonstrated by the composite nanofibers opens the possibility of using this material as a scaffold in cardiac tissue engineering. 

Potential applications of scaffolds made from chitosan and chitin nanofibers have been explored in tissue engineering. Chitin and chitosan can be electrospun into nanoscaffolds that could resemble the native extracellular matrix and have improved cytocompatibility for tissue engineering... 

CPs in different forms like nanofibers and thin films for tissue engineering applications were evaluated by Bendrea et Conducting C-PANl was blended with poly[L-lactide-co-e-caprolactone) (PLCL) and then electrospun to prepare a uniform nanofiber scaffold. This scaffold combined the elastic properties (comes from the PLCL domain) with electrical activity (due to conducting C-PANl) at the nanometer-scale features. It was proved that a nanoscale structure with RANI led to a high pore volume, interconnective pores, a uniform mean fiber diameter, and significantly increased conductivity. ... 

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