title: Electrospun nanofiber meshes with tailored architectures and patterns as potential tissue-engineering scaffolds.
abstract: Using a stainless steel mesh as a template collector, electrospun nanofiber meshes with well-tailored architectures and patterns were successfully prepared from biodegradable poly (epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL). It was found that the resulting PCL nanofiber (NF) meshes had similar topological structures to that of the template stainless steel mesh. Such PCL nanofiber meshes (NF meshes) had improved the tensile strength with Young's modulus of 62.7 +/- 5.3 MPa, which is >40% higher than the modulus of 44 +/- 5.7 MPa as measured with the corresponding randomly oriented PCL nanofiber mats (RNF mat). On the other hand, the ultimate strain (87.30%) of the PCL NF meshes was distinctly lower than that of the PCL RNF mats (146.46%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the mechanical properties of nanofiber meshes with tailored architectures and patterns were studied and reported. When cultured with a mouse osteoblastic cell line (MC3T3-E1), the electrospun PCL NF meshes gave a much higher proliferation rate as compared with the randomly oriented PCL RNF mats. More importantly, it was found that the cells grew and elongated along the fiber orientation directions, and the resulted cellular organization and distribution mimicked the topological structures of the PCL NF meshes. These results indicated that the electrospun nanofiber scaffolds with tailored architectures and patterns hold potential for engineering functional tissues or organs, where an ordered cellular organization is essential.
authors.affiliation: Bioengineering College of Chongqing University and 111 Project Laboratory of Biomechanics & Tissue Repair of Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400044, China.
authors.forename: Yazhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Guixue
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tieying
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Bochu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: James C-M
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Qingsong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D051379:Mice; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011091:Polyesters / Q000737:chemistry; D013193:Stainless Steel / Q000737:chemistry; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011091:Polyesters; D013193:Stainless Steel; C016240:polycaprolactone