GUIDANCE OF CELL ADHESION,ALIGNMENT, INFILTRATION, AND DIFFERENTIATION ON ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBROUS SCAFFOLDS - Intelligent Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine - page 208

Figure 10.4. Fiber angles for the different rates of rotation: (a-d) SEM
images of electrospun PCL/collagen nanofibers ( × 4.0K magnification) and
(e-h) normalized histograms of fiber angle; (a,e) static, (b,f) 800 rpm, (c,g)
1,500 rpm, and (d,h)2,350 rpm. 22
known that musculoskeletal tissues such as skeletal muscle exhibit
significant anisotropic mechanical properties and highly oriented
cells underneath the ECM. An essential step in engineering func-
tional skeletal muscle tissue is to mimic the structure of native tis-
sue, which is comprised of highly oriented myofibers formed from
fused mononucleated muscle cells. It is well known that the struc-
ture and organization of muscle fibers dictate tissue function. The
ability to e ciently organize muscle cells to form aligned myotubes
in vitro would greatly benefit efforts in skeletal muscle tissue engi-
neering. There are many factors that can guide cellular growth and
orientation, including uniaxial mechanical stimulation generated
by a bioreactor. This stimulation facilitates muscle cell orientation
and accelerates muscle tissue formation. It has been demonstrated
that aligned nanofibers greatly influence muscle cell organization
and enhance myotube formation. The myotubes formed on aligned
nanofibrous scaffolds are highly organized and are significantly
longer than myotubes formed on randomly oriented scaffolds. 22 On
the aligned nanofiber scaffolds, the myotubes are highly organized
when compared to those grown on randomly oriented nanofibers
andculturedishes(Fig.10.5).Thediameterofthemyotubeswasnot
significantly different between the aligned and randomly oriented
nanofiber scaffolds; however, the myotubes on the aligned nanofi-
brousscaffoldsweremorethantwicethelengthofthemyotubeson