Biocompatible, biodegradable nanofibers for skin and cartilage tissue engineering

Over the past decade tissue engineering comprising biodegradable and biocompatible polymers combination with cells proposed in order to regenerate the damaged tissues. In natural ECM structure protein fibers diameter are smaller than the cells and could provide a direct contact with the cells in three dimensional orientations, therefore the cells must have interaction with scaffold in three dimension areas. The tissue-engineered scaffold should provide the opportunity for signaling between cell and the environment and also between cells for regeneration of damaged tissues.electrospinning as an efficient technique for the fabrication of biomimetic non-woven nanofibrous scaffold containing large network of interconnected pores has gained so much attention in regenerative medicine such as damaged cartilage, skin and bone regeneration. Different kinds of biopolymers have been used for electrospinning process by our research team. Glycosaminoglycans as natural signaling molecules have been used in nanofibrous structure in combination with gelatin for chondrogenic differentiation of bone marrow MSC and also skin tissue engineering. Considering the synthetic polymers acceptable mechanical property and natural polymers biocompatibility, it would be a good candidate to combine the high biocompatibility of natural polymers such as glycosaminoglycans with the superior mechanical property of synthetic polymers such as polycaprolacton using mixing- electrospinning or core-shell morphology which is crucial in skin and cartilage tissue engineering. The PCL/gelatin core/shell nanofibers were fabricated using emulsion electrospinning for skin tissue engineering. The fabricated nanofibrous structure could be used for hydrophobic drug delivery systems in tissue engineering

Keywords:

Biocompatible , Biodegradable , Tissue engineering , Nanofibers