Electrospinning and Cell Fibers in Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Human body tissues such as muscle, blood vessels, tendon/ligaments, and nerves have fiber‐like fascicle morphologies, where ordered organization of cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) within the bundles in specific 3D manners orchestrates cells and ECM to provide tissue functions. Through engineering cell fibers (which are fibers containing living cells) as living building blocks with the help of emerging “bottom‐up” biomanufacturing technologies, it is now possible to reconstitute/recreate the fiber‐like fascicle morphologies and their spatiotemporally specific cell‐cell/cell‐ECM interactions in vitro, thereby enabling the modeling, therapy, or repair of these fibrous tissues. In this article, a concise review is provided of the “bottom‐up” biomanufacturing technologies and materials usable for fabricating cell fibers, with an emphasis on electrospinning that can effectively and efficiently produce thin cell fibers and with properly designed processes, 3D cell‐laden structures that mimic those of native fibrous tissues. The importance and applications of cell fibers as models, therapeutic platforms, or analogs/replacements for tissues for areas such as drug testing, cell therapy, and tissue engineering are highlighted. Challenges, in terms of biomimicry of high‐order hierarchical structures and complex dynamic cellular microenvironments of native tissues, as well as opportunities for cell fibers in a myriad of biomedical applications, are discussed.

A Review on the Electrospinning of Polymer Nanofibers and Its Biomedical Applications

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Electrospun nanofibers applications in caries lesions: prevention, treatment and regeneration

“…The incorporation of an additional electrode strip allows for the collection of directionally aligned spun fibers, thereby enhancing the material's mechanical properties to better adapt to the structure of mucous membranes, bones, joints, and other tissues. 12…”

Innovations in spider silk‐inspired artificial gel fibers: Methods, properties, strengthening, functionality, and challenges

“…The gel fibers exhibit a one‐dimensional network structure at the microscale, typically formed through physical or chemical crosslinking of hydrophilic polymers. Gel fiber systems have garnered remarkable attention because of their ability to effectively integrate the advantages of gels (such as strong water retention and absorption, high water content, and excellent biocompatibility) with fibers (including variable mechanical properties, diverse structures, and woven characteristics) 17 . The assembly of gel fibers can be attained through microfluidic spinning, wet spinning, draw spinning, and dynamic cross‐linking methods 18 .…”

“…Transforming gels into fibers incorporates the distinctive characteristics of fibrous structures to the resulting materials, thereby expanding their properties and functionalities beyond those of conventional polymer gels 17,94 . Here, Zhou and Xue et al 95,96 .…”