A review of developments in electrospinning technology: new opportunities for the design of artificial tissue structures.

Purpose: As a technology for the production of micro- and nanostructured scaffold materials, electrospinning has gained widespread acceptance in the medical research community over the last decade. The process generates a non-woven fiber mat consisting of one continuous filament with diameters ranging from the micron to the nanometer range. Because of its similarity to the filamentous microenvironment in native tissues, it is most often used as scaffold material in tissue engineering applications.

Electrospun cellular microenvironments: Understanding controlled release and scaffold structure.

Electrospinning is a versatile technique in tissue engineering for the production of scaffolds. To guide tissue development, scaffolds must provide specific biochemical, structural and mechanical cues to cells and deliver them in a controlled fashion over time. Electrospun scaffold design thus includes aspects of both controlled release and structural cues.

Fiber scaffolds of polysialic acid via electrospinning for peripheral nerve regeneration.

Fiber scaffolds of bioactive polysialic acid have been prepared via electrospinning for peripheral nerve regeneration. The diameter, morphology and alignment of fibers in scaffolds were adjusted by variation of electrospinning parameters, which are decisive for the cell-scaffold interaction. Due to the high water solubility of polysialic acid (poly-alpha-2,8-N-acetylneuraminic acid) a photoactive derivative (poly-alpha-2,8-N-pentenoylneuraminic acid) was used to obtain stable fiber scaffolds in water by photochemical crosslinking.