Latest Trends of Electrospun Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: A Review

This talk will review the latest developments for tissue engineering of electrospun scaffolds having microstructures at different scales and dimensions. Electrospinning is a dynamic process that involves electrostatically drawing a liquid to create fibrous structures. Increasingly used within tissue engineering and regenerative medicine tofabricate scaffolds. Electrospinning is a widely used simple technique to fabricate micro- to nanometer-sized fibrousscaffolds from various polymer solutions and melts. This process is inexpensive, reproducible and possesses simplicity for surface modification and biofunctionalization of the scaffoldscomprising. A combination of stem cells and nanofibrous membranes has the potential of tissue-engineered scaffolds for regenerative medicine applications. While electrospinning can produce small diameter fiber structures, with high surface area/volume structures and tailored porosity andadjusting mechanical properties of the scaffolds, thus supporting cell migration and differentiation, the natural polymeric phases incorporated into the matrix provide a biodegradable, biocompatible and bioactive platform for cell growth and bone tissue remodeling.This technique is widely used for fabrication of elaborated scaffolds to be used in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine such as; Dental Field and Maxillofacial Area, BoneRegeneration , Hypertrophic Cartilage and Bone Tissue Engineering, Cartilage and Joints - Tissue Engineering, Peripheral Nerve Repair, Urogenital Tract, Ocular Area , Vascular Tissue Engineering, Controlled Drug Delivery.However, electrospinning faces challenges in controlling fiber deposition due to excessive electric instabilities, contributed by volatile solvents and uniform cell colonization remains anunsolved problem in 3D scaffolds and difficulty to control the arrangement of solution electrospun fibers due to the chaotic nature of the electrospinning jet. Moreover, the properties of the solutions including the viscosity, surface tension, and electrical conductivity are important parameter and due to the complex interactions among molecules existing in the solution, it is unclear which factor(s) significantly affect the electro-spinability of the solution.