Interest in electrospinning has recently escalated due to the ability to produce materials with nanoscale properties. Electrospun fibers have been investigated as promising tissue engineering scaffolds since they mimic the nanoscale properties of native extracellular matrix. In this review, we examine electrospinning by providing a brief description of the theory behind the process, examining the effect of changing the process parameters on fiber morphology, and discussing the potential applications and impacts of electrospinning on the field of tissue engineering.

The physical and spatial architectural geometries of electrospun scaffolds are important to their application in tissue engineering strategies. In this work, poly(epsilon-caprolactone) microfiber scaffolds with average fiber diameters ranging from 2 to 10 microm were individually electrospun to determine the parameters required for reproducibly fabricating scaffolds. As fiber diameter increased, the average pore size of the scaffolds, as measured by mercury porosimetry, increased (values ranging from 20 to 45 microm), while a constant porosity was observed. To capitalize on both the larger pore sizes of the microfiber layers and the nanoscale dimensions of the nanofiber layers, layered scaffolds were fabricated by sequential electrospinning. These scaffolds consisted of alternating layers of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) microfibers and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) nanofibers. By electrospinning the nanofiber layers for different lengths of time, the thickness of the nanofiber layers could be modulated. Bilayered constructs consisting of microfiber scaffolds with varying thicknesses of nanofibers on top were generated and evaluated for their potential to affect rat marrow stromal cell attachment, spreading, and infiltration. Cell attachment after 24 h did not increase with increasing number of nanofibers, but the presence of nanofibers enhanced cell spreading as evidenced by stronger F-actin staining. Additionally, increasing the thickness of the nanofiber layer reduced the infiltration of cells into the scaffolds under both static and flow perfusion culture for the specific conditions tested. The scaffold design presented in this study allows for cellular infiltration into the scaffolds while at the same time providing nanofibers as a physical mimicry of extracellular matrix.

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Current solutions in the treatment of cardiovascular disease include angioplasty and the insertion of stents, but a large number of these cases result in restenosis. Biomaterial coatings that control vascular smooth muscle cell migration are therefore desirable. In this study, we describe a novel method to create substrata with defined gradients in mechanical compliance using photopolymerization and patterning. Cell speed was found to be 53 ( 2.6 µm/h on a substrate with a Young's modulus of 15 kPa compared to 40 ( 3.1 µm/h for a 28 kPa substratum (P < 0.005). We demonstrate that vascular smooth muscle cells undergo direct migration on radial-gradient-compliant substrata from soft to stiff regions of the substrate and that cells accumulate in the stiff regions after 24 h. Our results show that the pattern of the compliance gradient is important and that substrate compliance may be a key design parameter for modulation of cell migration for vascular tissue engineering applications.

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