Research on the electrospun foaming process to fabricate three‐dimensional tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

Three‐dimensional (3D) tissue engineering scaffolds were fabricated by an electrospun foaming process. A two‐dimensional (2D) membrane was fabricated first by the electrospinning technology, and then a sodium borohydride gas foaming process was used to expand the 2D membrane to a 3D tissue engineering scaffold. The effects of six process parameters on the foamed height of 3D scaffolds were systematically studied during fabrication using a L27(313) orthogonal design table. The mechanism of the gas foaming process was investigated by a porosity analysis and a scanning electron microscopy analysis of the scaffolds' surface and cross‐sectional morphology. Finally, wettability experiments and L929 fibroblast adhesion and proliferation experiments were carried out on the 3D scaffolds. The results showed that the concentration of polycaprolactone (PCL) has the most significant effect on height, and the optimal process parameters were 8 wt % PCL solution, 15 kV voltage, 4 mL h−1 flow rate, 20 cm distance, 60 min spinning time, and 5 g sodium borohydride. The 2D membrane with a smaller fiber diameter and higher porosity was more easily foamed. The fabricated 3D scaffold had good wettability, and cell absorbance (OD value) increased by 25.34% on day 7 over that of the 2D electrospun nanofibrous scaffold. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46898.

Fabrication and modification of wavy multicomponent vascular grafts with biomimetic mechanical properties, antithrombogenicity, and enhanced endothelial cell affinity

“…WMVGs were stretched and released for 50 cycles to investigate their cyclic properties and were compared with human internal mammary artery (IMA) data from the literature as shown in Figures (D–F) . WMVGs showed larger hysteresis loops in the first cycle than the latter cycles because the fibers loosened and reoriented in response to the external force.…”

“…Cell viability was assessed via a Live/Dead viability/cytotoxicity kit (Life Technologies) . The staining protocol followed the manufacturer's instructions.…”

“…WMVGs were stretched and released for 50 cycles to investigate their cyclic properties and were compared with human internal mammary artery (IMA) data from the literature as shown in Figures 3(D-F). 37 WMVGs showed larger hysteresis loops in the first cycle than the latter cycles because the fibers loosened and reoriented in response to the external force. The cyclical stress-strain curves were all located within the upper (red curve) and lower (blue curve) bounds of the IMA data, suggesting that the WMVGs exhibited the nonlinear tensile stress-strain behavior of native human arteries.…”

“…Live/dead assay Cell viability was assessed via a Live/Dead viability/cytotoxicity kit (Life Technologies). 36,37 The staining protocol followed the manufacturer's instructions. The green fluorescent calcein-AM was used to target the living cells, while the red fluorescence ethidium homodimer-1 (EthD-1) was used to indicate cell death.…”

Optimization of Injection-Molding Process Parameters for Weight Control: Converting Optimization Problem to Classification Problem

“…Because of these challenges, researchers have conducted many studies to explore the approaches to take in order to optimize injection-molding parameters. e design of experiments (DOE), such as the Taguchi method, is applied to improve the quality of manufactured goods by analyzing the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) [16][17][18][19][20][21]. e Taguchi method is unsuitable for the problem in this study because process parameters are continuous.…”