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Electrospinning, a technological milestone for tissue engineering and material science
Tissue engineering is an emerging field in regenerative medicine and it serves as an alternative to replacing damaged tissue trough conventional allografts. It utilizes artificially, in-vitro generated tissues which are grown from the patient’s own somatic cells. This technology will help us avoid barriers associated with the current methods of tissue or organ replacement like surgical complications, scarcity of donor organs and complications during postoperative care such as rejection by the host immune system. The tissue engineering involves utilization of a scaffold for the growth of the tissue and various materials have been tested with different structures, which are specialized for each type of tissue. Since, different types of tissues exhibit different biological, functional and mechanical properties, it is imperative to design the scaffold which provides suitable mechanical support that leads to the intended type of cellular growth. The best way of achieving it is looking for materials that mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM) that is found naturally in every type of living tissue. The ECM is responsible for providing the necessary structure for the tissue which has the ideal intercellular interactions, fluid flow, and material transportation and off course, mechanical properties.
Tissue engineering techniques such as electrospinning have boosted the technological trend, especially in the fabrication of scaffolds for articular cartilages for treating arthritis. Mimicking the cartilage material is a challenging task, because of its complex network of proteoglycan and collagen fibers. The earlier materials simply were not durable enough. Thanks to the electrospinning system, it is now possible to fabricate more effective replacements. This technology consists of three units, a material delivery unit, high voltage power unit, and fiber collection unit. The electrospinning method involves spraying an electrically charged jet of the polymer solution onto a network of randomly interconnected nanofibers with the diameter ranging from 10nm to 100 µm which is connected to an electrode. The solvent evaporates and the polymer solidifies onto the nanofibres. This technology can be configured to produce various kinds of scaffolds for different tissue types that include skin, cardiovascular tissue, endocrine organs, and even nerve tissues.
In order to be successfully incorporated within the human body and to avoid any post-surgical complications, the materials used must be biocompatible and biomimetic, the two most desired attributes for any medical implants. Therefore, synthetic and biological materials are added as nanofibers. Manufacturers are trying every combination possible like graphene oxides with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan. Other, enhancements include an addition of alkalin and shikonin as antimicrobial and wound healing agents.
In total, electrospinning is an efficient and feasible method of fabricating functional scaffolds with a wide range of material options and versatile production. However, producing materials with the exact effects such as cellular regeneration and comparative mechanical properties is still not achieved and improvements are in progress. There are also other untried issues to be explored in the future such as bio-toxicity and biodegradability and reduced overall risks to human trials.
Jessie Marsh
biopolymers@memeetings.net
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