title: Advantages and challenges offered by biofunctional core-shell fiber systems for tissue engineering and drug delivery.
abstract: Whereas highly porous scaffolds composed of electrospun nanofibers can mimick major features of the extracellular matrix in tissue engineering, they lack the ability to incorporate and release biocompounds (drugs, growth factors) safely in a controlled way. Here, electrospun core-shell fibers (core made from water and aqueous solutions of hydrophilic polymers and the shell from materials with well-defined release mechanisms) offer unique advantages in comparison with those that have helped make porous nanofibrillar scaffolds highly successful in tissue engineering. This review considers the preparation and biofunctionalization of such core-shell fibers as well as applications in various areas, including neural, vascular, cardiac, cartilage and bone tissue engineering, and touches on the topic of clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Hematology and Stem Cell Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Sperling
authors.affiliation: Hematology and Stem Cell Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Post Graduate Program in Physiology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Karina P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Reis
authors.affiliation: Hematology and Stem Cell Laboratory, Faculty of Pharmacy, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; Stem Cell Research Institute, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pranke
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Electronic address: wendorff@staff.uni-marburg.de.
authors.forename: Joachim H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wendorff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D006801:Humans; D057139:Nanofibers; D036103:Nanotechnology; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical; D023822:Tissue Engineering