Melt electrospinning of poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds: Phenomenological observations associated with collection and direct writing

Brown, Toby D.; Edin, Fredrik; Detta, Nicola; Skelton, Anthony; Hutmacher, Dietmar W.; Dalton, Paul D.

doi:10.1016/j.msec.2014.07.034

Cited by 150 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…MEW involves a different experimental set-up including a relatively small spinning length (collector distance) and the application of an accelerating voltage that both draws the jet and stabilises the fluid from jet break up. Most importantly, the very low mass flow rate required to establish a stable MEW processtypically 20-50 μL/h [15,22] and as low as 5 μL/h [12] is significantly lower compared to industrialised techniques such as melt spinning. Thus, the comparison of these two unstable melt operating regimes is speculative without further investigation.…”

Section: Comparison With Instabilities During Melt Spinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While MEW is a relatively new processing technology, there is an increasing body of evidence suggesting that there are multiple advantages to using it for fabricating scaffolds [18][19][20][21][22]. MEW is solvent-free -therefore the need to print within a fume hood or to use special equipment to remove volatile chemicals is not required, and solvent accumulation in fibres does not occur.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another benefit of MEW is that small fibre diameters lead to flexible constructs that enable even relatively rigid polymers to be fabricated as soft, compliant structures [16,20,21]. So far, melt electrospinning has been used to process the following medical polymers: poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) [12,[16][17][18][21][22][23], poly(lactide-co-glycolide) [24], poly(lactic acid) [25], PCL-block-poly(ethylene glycol) [26][27][28][29][30], poly(lactide-co-caprolactone-co-acryloyl carbonate) [31], polypropylene [28,32], poly(methyl methacrylate) [33], and poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEtOx) [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fibre pulsing during melt electrospinning writing

et al. 2016

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Additive manufacturing with electrohydrodynamic direct writing is a promising approach for the production of polymeric microscale objects. In this study we investigate the stability of one such process, melt electrospinning writing, to maintain accurate placement of the deposited fibre throughout the entire print. The influence of acceleration voltage and feeding pressure on the deposited poly(ε-caprolactone) fibre homogeneity is described, and how this affects the variable lag of the jet drawn by the collector movement. Three classes of diameter instabilities were observed that led to poor printing quality: (1) temporary pulsing, (2) continuous pulsing, and (3) regular long bead defects. No breakup of the electrified jet was observed for any of the experiments. A simple approach is presented for the melt electrospinning user to evaluate fibre writing integrity, and adjust the processing parameters accordingly to achieve reproducible and constant diameter fibres.

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Section: Comparison With Instabilities During Melt Spinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fibre pulsing during melt electrospinning writing

et al. 2016

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“…Traditional scaffold fabrication techniques have included the production of porous polymer constructs by freeze-extraction and -gelation [5], electrospinning [6], melt electrospinning [7,8] or with hydrogels [9][10][11][12] as substrates for cell attachment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In vitro degradation and mechanical properties of PLA-PCL copolymer unit cell scaffolds generated by two-photon polymerization

et al. 2016

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The manufacture of 3D scaffolds with specific controlled porous architecture, defined microstructure and an adjustable degradation profile was achieved using two-photon polymerization (TPP) with a size of 2 × 4 × 2 mm3. Scaffolds made from poly(D,L-lactide-co-ɛ-caprolactone) copolymer with varying lactic acid (LA) and ɛ -caprolactone (CL) ratios (LC16:4, 18:2 and 9:1) were generated via ring-opening-polymerization and photoactivation. The reactivity was quantified using photo-DSC, yielding a double bond conversion ranging from 70% to 90%. The pore sizes for all LC scaffolds were see 300 μm and throat sizes varied from 152 to 177 μm. In vitro degradation was conducted at different temperatures; 37, 50 and 65 °C. Change in compressive properties immersed at 37 °C over time was also measured. Variations in thermal, degradation and mechanical properties of the LC scaffolds were related to the LA/CL ratio. Scaffold LC16:4 showed significantly lower glass transition temperature (Tg) (4.8 °C) in comparison with the LC 18:2 and 9:1 (see 32 °C). Rates of mass loss for the LC16:4 scaffolds at all temperatures were significantly lower than that for LC18:2 and 9:1. The degradation activation energies for scaffold materials ranged from 82.7 to 94.9 kJ mol−1. A prediction for degradation time was applied through a correlation between long-term degradation studies at 37 °C and short-term studies at elevated temperatures (50 and 65 °C) using the half-life of mass loss (Time (M1/2)) parameter. However, the initial compressive moduli for LC18:2 and 9:1 scaffolds were 7 to 14 times higher than LC16:4 (see 0.27) which was suggested to be due to its higher CL content (20%). All scaffolds showed a gradual loss in their compressive strength and modulus over time as a result of progressive mass loss over time. The manufacturing process utilized and the scaffolds produced have potential for use in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.

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“…As a consequence, Ristovski et al have reported the fabrication of ordered scaffolds of up to 1.5mm by optimising the voltage distribution between the needle and collector plate (Ristovski et al, 2015). Similarly, other studies have investigated the effects of a number of other operational parameters to increase scaffold stability and fibre order (Brown et al, 2014(Brown et al, , 2011.…”

Section: Melt-electrospinningmentioning

confidence: 99%

[leave for Adam - copyright supporting evidence]Designing patient-specific melt-electrospun scaffolds for bone regeneration

Paxton¹

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Biofabrication, or the 3D printing of biological-relevant tissues, is revolutionising our ability to treat patients who have suffered tissue loss as a result of trauma, disease or birth defect. As a subset of the Tissue Engineering field, biofabrication research is focussing on optimising the fabrication of implantable constructs, known as scaffolds, which provide a support structure for cell infiltration and growth, ultimately dissolving and restoring tissue, completely healing the patient.While research has focused on developing the mechanical capability to print structures using 3D printing, alongside biological advances to create highly biocompatible, bioactive constructs which have enhanced regenerative properties, less research has focused on developing methods of designing scaffolds which are anatomically matched to individual patients.In this thesis, a novel method for designing patient-specific scaffold for bone regeneration, to be fabricating using the melt-electrospinning 3D printing technique, was developed. The method was then applied to three clinically-relevant case studies, examining how to accurately design scaffolds to treat a wide range of orthopaedic injuries. Medical scan data was obtained from two patients and a third defect was recreated from an anatomical skull model. Following data acquisition, scaffolds were designed using 3D modelling software and processed into slices. These slices were processed by a proprietary g-code generation program which automatically generates the required computer instructions to fabricate each of the suitable layers using a meltelectrospinning machine. A skull scaffold to treat a large cranial defect, a femur scaffold to fill a void after a realignment procedure and a patella scaffold to improve the external shape of the reconstructed bone were successfully designed. The computer instructions were then trialled on the melt-electrospinning machine to assess the success of the generated g-code.In collaboration with the Biofabrication and Tissue Morphology group at the Queensland University of Technology, as well as the Orthopaedic Unit at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, this research project has successfully demonstrated the ability to fabricate patient-specific scaffolds, which one day could be used clinically to treat patients suffering from bone loss.

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Melt electrospinning of poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds: Phenomenological observations associated with collection and direct writing

Cited by 150 publications

References 40 publications

Fibre pulsing during melt electrospinning writing

Fibre pulsing during melt electrospinning writing

In vitro degradation and mechanical properties of PLA-PCL copolymer unit cell scaffolds generated by two-photon polymerization

[leave for Adam - copyright supporting evidence]Designing patient-specific melt-electrospun scaffolds for bone regeneration

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