While electrospinning had seen intermittent use in the textile industry from the early twentieth century, it took the explosion of the field of tissue engineering, and its pursuit of biomimetic extracellular matrix (ECM) structures, to create an electrospinning renaissance. Over the past decade, a growing number of researchers in the tissue engineering community have embraced electrospinning as a polymer processing technique that effectively and routinely produces non‐woven structures of nanoscale fibers (sizes of 80 nm to 1.5 µm). These nanofibers are of physiological significance as they closely resemble the structure and size scale of the native ECM (fiber diameters of 50 to 500 nm). Attempts to replicate the many roles of native ECM have led to the electrospinning of a wide array of polymers, both synthetic (poly(glycolic acid), poly(lactic acid), polydioxanone, polycaprolactone, etc.) and natural (collagen, fibrinogen, elastin, etc.) in origin, for a multitude of different tissue applications. With various compositions, fiber dimensions and fiber orientations, the biological, chemical and mechanical properties of the electrospun materials can be tailored. In this review we highlight the role of electrospinning in the engineering of different tissues and applications (skin/wound healing, cartilage, bone, vascular tissue, urological tissues, nerve, and ligament), and discuss its potential role in future work. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry

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Autologous platelet concentrates represent promising innovative tools in the field of regenerative medicine and have been extensively used in oral surgery. Unlike platelet rich plasma (PRP) that is a gel or a suspension, Leukocyte-Platelet Rich Fibrin (L-PRF) is a solid 3D fibrin membrane generated chair-side from whole blood containing no anti-coagulant. The membrane has a dense three dimensional fibrin matrix with enriched platelets and abundant growth factors. L-PRF is a popular adjunct in surgeries because of its superior handling characteristics as well as its suturability to the wound bed. The goal of the study is to demonstrate generation as well as provide detailed characterization of relevant properties of L-PRF that underlie its clinical success. Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at

Diet is major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease that can influence the immune status of the individual and contribute to persistent low-grade inflammation. In recent years, there has been an increased appreciation of the role of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in improving immune function and reduction of systemic inflammation via the modulation of pattern recognition receptors (PRR) on immune cells. Extensive research on the use of bioactive lipids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and their metabolites have illustrated the importance of these pro-resolving lipid mediators in modulating signaling through PRRs. While their mechanism of action, bioavailability in the blood, and their efficacy for clinical use forms an active area of research, they are found widely administered as marine animal-based supplements like fish oil and krill oil to promote health. The focus of this review will be to discuss the effect of these bioactive fatty acids and their metabolites on immune cells and the resulting inflammatory response, with a brief discussion about modern methods for their analysis using mass spectrometry-based methods.

Advanced biomaterials and sophisticated processing technologies aim at fabricating tissue-engineering scaffolds that can predictably interact within a biological environment at the cellular level. Sterilization of such scaffolds is at the core of patient safety and is an important regulatory issue that needs to be addressed before clinical translation. In addition, it is crucial that meticulously engineered micro- and nano- structures are preserved after sterilization. Conventional sterilization methods involving heat, steam, and radiation are not compatible with engineered polymeric systems because of scaffold degradation and loss of architecture. Using electrospun scaffolds made from polycaprolactone, a low melting polymer, and employing spores of Bacillus atrophaeus as biological indicators, we compared ethylene oxide, autoclaving and 80% ethanol to a known chemical sterilant, peracetic acid (PAA), for their ability to sterilize as well as their effects on scaffold properties. PAA diluted in 20% ethanol to 1000 ppm or above sterilized electrospun scaffolds in 15 min at room temperature while maintaining nano-architecture and mechanical properties. Scaffolds treated with PAA at 5000 ppm were rendered hydrophilic, with contact angles reduced to 0°. Therefore, PAA can provide economical, rapid, and effective sterilization of heat-sensitive polymeric electrospun scaffolds that are used in tissue engineering.