Electrospun polycaprolactone matrices with tensile properties suitable for soft tissue engineering

Abstract

The extracellular environment is a complex network of functional and structural components that impart chemical and mechanical stimuli that affect cellular function and fate. Cell differentiation on three dimensional scaffolds is also determined by the modulus of the substrate. Electrospun PCL nanofibers, which mimic the extra cellular matrix, have been developed with a wide variety of solvents and their combinations. The various studies have revealed that the solvents used influence the physical and mechanical properties, resulting in scaffolds with Young's modulus in the range of 1.8-15.4 MPa, more suitable for engineering of hard tissue like bone. The current study describes the use of benign binary solvent-generated fibrous scaffolds with a Young's modulus of 36.05 ± 13.08 kPa, which is almost 50 times lower than that of scaffolds derived from the commonly used solvents, characterized with myoblast, which can be further explored for applications in muscle and soft tissue engineering.

Engineering of a Stable Collagen Nanofibrous Scaffold with Tunable Fiber Diameter, Alignment, and Mechanical Properties

“…We investigated the use of acetic acid (HAc) as a nonaggressive solvent in the preparation of collagen nanofibers. This mild solvent has been previously proposed for the preparation of collagen nanofibers by electrospinning . Kazanci shows that solutions of 40% (w/v) collagen/HAc allowed for the deposition of wet fibers on the target with poor morphology, because of the slow evaporation rate of the acid and its strong affinity with collagen .…”

“…They investigated several ratios of collagen/PCL (75/25, 50/50, and 25/75% w/w) and obtained successful nanofibers formation with globular structures . Recently, it has been proposed that mixtures of acetic acid and dimethyl sulfoxide allowed for the formation of electrospun type I collagen nanofibers . Fiorani et al successfully electrospun type I collagen from acetic acid without the addition of any other component .…”

“…Several efforts to electrospun collagen from benign solvents have been proposed including blends with other synthetic polymers, and a phosphate buffer and ethanol mixture . Recently, weak acids—such as acetic acid—have been proposed as an attractive solvent for the production of collagen nanofibers because they are able to generate stable fibers with uniform morphology that preserve collagen's secondary structure …”

The influence of specimen thickness and alignment on the material and failure properties of electrospun polycaprolactone nanofiber mats

“…1,5,6 An additional advantage of electrospinning is its versatility. Numerous polymers can be solubilized and successfully electrospun, including (but not limited to) synthetic polymers, polycaprolactone 7,8 and polymethacrylate, 9 and natural polymers such as collagen 10,11 and silk fibroin. [12][13][14] Electrospinning has aided in production of tissue replacement grafts, 5,6,15,16 drug carriers, 17,18 and even protective clothing.…”

Indirect coculture of stem cells with fetal chondrons using PCL electrospun nanofiber scaffolds

“…Different scaffolding materials, such as poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL), have been used for cartilage regeneration and soft tissue engineering (Elamparithi et al 2015). The PCL was chosen because it is a FDA-approved, biodegradable polymers (Sinha et al 2004) that supports chondrogenesis (Li et al 2003) and degrades slowly and entirely cleared by the body (Huang et al 2006, Sun et al 2006.…”