Facile method for fabricating uniformly patterned and porous nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

Electrospinning is a technique that has been widely utilized to create nanofibrous scaffolds that mimic the cellular environment. Scaffold fabrication using the conventional electrospinning technique is cost-effective and simple. However, this method is slightly problematic in terms of creating a well-defined structure. To create a uniformly patterned and porous nanofibrous scaffold, in this study, we utilized an easy module consisting of a patterned watersoluble film placed on the top of a conventional collector. Scaffolds fabricated with either poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) or poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) were seeded with human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs), and evaluated for cellular proliferation. The patterned and porous nanofibrous scaffolds facilitated significantly better hASC proliferation compared to scaffolds prepared using a conventional collector apparatus. Enhanced hASC proliferation was confirmed by total cellular proliferation activity evaluation and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These results indicate that the facile method described in this study would be promising for preparation of patterned and porous nanofibrous scaffolds for a variety of tissue engineering applications.