title: Hydro-spinning: a novel technology for making alginate/chitosan fibrous scaffold.
abstract: Alginate/chitosan polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) hybrid fibers are promising materials for scaffold-making in tissue engineering. In this study, a new method termed "hydro-spinning" was developed to make alginate/chitosan hybrid fibers. In hydro-spinning, a chitosan solution was pumped into a flowing sodium alginate solution and sheared into streamlines. These elongated streamlines subsequently transformed into alginate/chitosan PEC ribbon-like fibers before breaking up into pieces. Average diameter and chitosan content of the fibers correlated positively with the chitosan concentration used in spinning. These hybrid fibers showed a high water-absorbability of around 50-fold to 60-fold of water to their dry weight and could retain their integrity after saturation in minimum essential medium (MEM) medium for 30 days. In vitro culture experiments demonstrated that these fibers were able to support the three-dimensional growth of MCF-7, suggesting the potential applications of these fibers in biomedical and bioengineering fields such as tissue engineering.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biomedical Material Engineering, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian-Zheng
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiao-Bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Wei-Ting
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei-Yang
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000042:Absorption / Q000187:drug effects; D000464:Alginates / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D048271:Chitosan / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology; D004602:Elements; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000494:pharmacology; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D004602:Elements; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D014867:Water; D020723:Glucuronic Acid; D048271:Chitosan