Electrospun poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)/poly(caprolactone) fibers for the generation of anisotropic cell sheets.

Cell alignment in muscle, nervous tissue, and cartilage is requisite for proper tissue function; however, cell sheeting techniques using the thermosensitive polymer poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAAm) can only produce anisotropic cell sheets with delicate and resource-intensive modifications. We hypothesized that electrospinning, a relatively simple and inexpensive technique to generate aligned polymer fibers, could be used to fabricate anisotropic PNIPAAm and poly(caprolactone) (PCL) blended surfaces that both support cell viability and permit cell sheet detachment via PNIPAAm dissolution. Aligned electrospun PNIPAAm/PCL fibers (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% PNIPAAm) were electrospun and characterized.