Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
electrospun nanofibers to match the native tissue by a combination
of several polymers, fiber diameter, and fiber orientation. In addi-
tion,higherporosityandwideporediametersresultingfromacom-
bination of micronanofibers showed encouraging cell infiltration
into the 3D construct. All of these properties need to be consid-
ered while constructing nanofiber-based grafts for tissue regenera-
tion.However, to moveforward from ourcurrent position,there isa
clearneedforfurtherresearchintotheeffectsof3Dnanofiberarchi-
tecture, functionalization, and interfacial properties on cell behav-
ior. In general, electrospinning utilizes several fluorinated and toxic
organic solvents to dissolve polymers. Such toxic solvents might
affect the structural conformation of several biopolymers and pro-
teins and result in an undesired cellular response. A critical need
exists to replace these toxic organic solvents with aqueous-based or
less toxic solvents during electrospinning. Also more efforts need to
be made to improve the e ciency of nanofiber production, pack-
ing, shipping, and handling. Such efforts can further improve the
e cacy of nanofibers and can lead to the development of commer-
cially viable nanofiber technology for a variety of biomedical appli-
cations. Mimicking the architecture of the ECM is one of the major
challenges of tissue engineering. Among all the approaches used
to prepare the ECM synthetically, the approach using nanofibers
has shown the most promising results. Nanofibers can be formed
using one of three prevailing techniques: electrospinning, self-
assembly, and phase separation. Electrospinning is the most
widely studied technique and has also shown the most promising
results.
Nanofibers, irrespective of their method of synthesis, have pro-
vided for scaffolds with high surface area and enhanced poros-
ity. These properties have been demonstrated to have a signifi-
canteffectoncelladhesion,proliferation,anddifferentiation.Hence
nanofibrous matrices are currently being explored as scaffolds for
musculoskeletal tissue engineering (including bone, cartilage, liga-
ment, and skeletal muscle), skin tissue engineering, neural tissue
engineering, vascular tissue engineering, and controlled delivery
of drugs, proteins, and DNA. The results of all recently published
studies clearly indicate that nanofiber-based scaffolds show excel-
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search