Tissue engineering scaffolds electrospinning

Boland ED et al (2001) Tailoring tissue engineering scaffolds using electrostatic processing techniques a study of poly(glycolic acid) electrospinning. J Macromol Sci, Pure Appl Chem 38(12) 1231-1243... 

Telemeco TA et al (2005) Regulation of cellular infiltration into tissue engineering scaffolds composed of submicron diameter fibrils produced by electrospinning. Acta Biomater 1(4) 377-385... 

HA-based nanofibrous membranes have been extremely attractive as bio-mimetic tissue engineering scaffolds and wound healing materials. In order to mimic the architecture of the natural ECM using electrospinning, a thiolated-HA derivative was synthesized and electrospun to form nanofibrous matrices [137]. 

Electrospinning of PHA is still relatively new in scaffold fabrication. To date, P(3HB) and P(3HB-co-3HV) are the most common microbial polyesters to be electrospun into tissue-engineering scaffolds. Suwantong et al. (2007) prepared ultrafine electrospun fiber mats of P(3HB) and P(3HB-co-3HV) as scaffolding materials for skin and nerve generation, hi their study, they evaluated the in vitro biocompatibility of these fibers using mouse fibroblasts and Schwann cells... 

Due to its ease of implementation, electrospinning has received a lot of attention as a technique to produce nanoflbres [83]. When the diameter of polymer fibre materials shrinks from the microscale to the submicro or nanoscale, several new characteristics appear, such as enhanced surface area-to-volume ratio and a superior mechanical performance [84]. Therefore, biopolymer nanofibrous mats show great potential to be used as particle filters, nanocomposite reinforcing fibres, protective clothing and in biomedical applications like wound dressings, sutures, tissue engineering scaffolds, implantable devices and drug delivery [83-85]. 

Chen, M., Ratra, R.K., Warner, S.B. and Bhowmick, S. 2006b. Optimization of electrospinning process parameters for tissue engineering scaffolds. 

There is currently a renewed interest in the use of electrospinning techniques for the fabrication of membranes. Chapter 8 reviews the use of this versatile technique for the production of nanofiber webs or membranes. The chemical and physical properties of nanofiber manbrane surfaces play an important role in their application to filtration, biomedical materials, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery... 

Key words nanofibers, electrospinning, tissue engineering, scaffolds, bicomponent, vascular grafts. 

An important commercial application of the nondegradable electrospun fibers is high-efficiency particulate absorption (HEPA) filters for air purification. In biomedical area, electrospinning is used to fabricate tissue engineering scaffolds to mimic ECM function, in which the cell response of the mat can be tuned by tuning fiber diameter and mesh size. 

Chung, S. W., Ingle, N. P., Montero, G. A., Kim, S. H. King, M. W. 2010. Bioresorbable elastomeric vascular tissue engineering scaffolds via melt spinning and electrospinning. Acta Biomaterialia, 6, 1958-1967. 

Hydrogels are one of the most common tissue engineering scaffolds. In its most basic form, a hydrogel consists of a solution of hydrophilic polymer, suspended in water, that forms a gel on cross-linking. Cross-linking may be induced by a radical initiator, usually photo- or heat activated, which cross-links linear or branched polymers. As with electrospinning, there are many polymers and polymer blends that have been made into hydrogels (Li et al., 2015 Lin and Li, 2014 Sun et al., 2014). 

Nair LS, Bhattacharyya S, Laurencin CT (2004) Development of novel tissue engineering scaffolds via electrospinning. Expert Opln Biol Ther 4 659-668... 

Electrospinning technique has proved to be efficient in nanofibers production for diverse applications such as biomedical applications, liquid crystal devices, nanofiltration, etc. However, it has been very promising technique for tissue engineered scaffolds fabrication. This reiterates the fact that through this technique, it is possible to fabricate scaffolds by resembling the namral ECM inside human body. The features of electrospun nanofibers can be manipulated so that (i) the dimensions of nanofibers could resemble the namral tissue fibers dimensions in the body and (ii) the scaffolds porosity could be manipulated to mimic that of the namral tissues inside the body. High porosity is mandatory in scaffolds for better fluid perfusion and cell proliferation. 

Boland, E. D., K. J. Pawlowski, C. P. Barnes, D. G. Simpson, G. E. Wnek, and G. L. Bowlin (2006). Electrospinning of bioresorbable polymers for tissue engineering scaffolds. In Polymeric Nanofibers. ACS Symposium Series 918. Edited by... 

Telemeco, T. A., C. Ayres, G. L. Bowlin, G. E. Wnek, E. D. Boland, N. Cohen, C. M. Baumgarten, J. Mathews, and D. G. Simpson (2005). Regulation of cellular infiltration into tissue engineering scaffolds composed of submicron diameter fibrils produced by electrospinning. Acta Biomaterialia l(4) 377-385. 

---