FABRICATION OF TISSUE ENGINEERING SCAFFOLDS BY ELECTROSPINNING TECHNIQUES - Intelligent Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine - page 229

(A) (B)

(C)

Figure 11.5. (A): (a) Schematic illustration of fabrication of fibrous tubes
by the electrospinning technique using 3D columnar collectors; b) a fibrous
tube with a diameter of 500 μ m; c) SEM image of fiber assemblies of the
tubein(b).(B):(a)Schematicillustrationofcollectingprocessusingacylin-
dricalcollectorwithequallyspacedcircularprotrusions(es,electrospinning
process;pc,patternedcollector);(b)afibroustubewithpatternedarchitec-
tures (scale bar

μ

m);
d) schematic illustration of collectors with two different patterns and rele-
vantfibroustube(ft,fibroustube);(e)afibroustubewithtwodifferentpat-
terns (scale bar

= 5 mm); (c) magnified image of (b) (scale bar = 200

= 5 mm); (f,g) magnified images of two different patterns

μ

of (e) (scale bar m). (C): (a) Schematic illustration of the process

for fabrication of tubes with multiple interconnected tubular structures;
(b) a crossing tube (scale bar = 5 mm); (c) tubes with various intercon-
nected tubularstructures (scale bar = 5 mm).

= 200

cells.Theversatilityofthistechniquegivesroomforfurtherscaffold
improvements.

11.6 Conclusions and Outlook

In this chapter, the technical development of fabricating electro-
spun fibers with different morphologies and configurations (1D,
2D, and 3D) for tissue engineering applications was reviewed. By
modifying electrospinning parameters, fibers with different mor-
phologies, diameters, and structures (core shell, hollow nanofibers,
etc. ) can be fabricated. Nanofibers can be bundled to improve
their mechanical strength. Electrospun mats with different 2D pat-
terned architectures can be fabricated by designing electroconduc-
tive collectors. With well-tailored 3D collectors, fibrous tubes with