Electrospun PCL-Based Vascular Grafts: In Vitro Tests

Abstract

Background: Electrospun fibers have attracted a lot of attention from researchers due to their several characteristics, such as a very thin diameter, three-dimensional topography, large surface area, flexible surface, good mechanical characteristics, suitable for widespread applications. Indeed, electro-spinning offers many benefits, such as great surface-to-volume ratio, adjustable porosity, and the ability of imitating the tissue extra-cellular matrix. Methods: we processed Poly ε-caprolactone (PCL) via electrospinning for the production of bilayered tubular scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering application. Endothelial cells and fibroblasts were seeded into the two side of the scaffolds: endothelial cells onto the inner side composed of PCL/Gelatin fibers able to mimic the inner surface of the vessels, and fibroblasts onto the outer side only exposing PCL fibers. Extracellular matrix production and organization has been performed by means of classical immunofluorescence against collagen type I fibers, Scanning Electron-Microscopy (SEM) has been performed in order to evaluated ultrastructural morphology, gene expression by means gene expression has been performed to evaluate the phenotype of endothelial cells and fibroblasts. Results and conclusion: results confirmed that both cells population are able to conserve their phenotype colonizing the surface supporting the hypothesis that PCL scaffolds based on electrospun fibers should be a good candidate for vascular surgery.

Electrospun fibre diameter and its effects on vascular smooth muscle cells

“…While we did not look at crystallinity effects, based on our SEM analysis we can confirm no adverse effects on fibre roughness. Interestingly, this approach of varying multiple parameters to achieve a range of fibre sizes has been commonly done in the literature [ 11 , 38 , 39 ]. One notable study showed that the best results were achieved using a multi-parameter approach to achieve a range of fibre sizes [ 38 ].…”

In Situ Characterization of Polycaprolactone Fiber Response to Quasi-Static Tensile Loading in Scanning Electron Microscopy

“…Fiber diameter and the degree of orientation were determined based on ten SEM (S-3400 N, Hitachi High-Tech Analytical Science Ltd., Tubney Woods, Abington, UK) images: five for each of the two relative collector velocities. Afterwards, the images were analyzed using image analysis software (AxioVision ® , Carl Zeiss AG, Jena, Germany) as described by Fricke et al (2019) [ 14 , 30 ].…”

Biomaterials and Extracellular Vesicle Delivery: Current Status, Applications and Challenges

“…PCL is a linear, hydrophobic, aliphatic polyester with high mechanical strength and is biocompatible as well as biodegradable [ 172 , 173 ]. Chemotherapeutics [ 154 , 157 , 159 , 174 , 175 , 176 , 177 , 178 , 179 ], antimicrobials [ 162 , 180 , 181 ], and anti-inflammatory drugs [ 160 , 182 ] have been delivered using PCL.…”