Chapter 24 - Electrospun Nanofibers for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds have emerged as a potential alternative to tissue autologous grafts, the gold standard for tissue repair. As the basic component of tissue engineering, electrospun nanofiber scaffolds have potential application in many tissues, including tendon, vascular, nerve, bone, cartilage, and so on. On one hand, for tissue repair, electrospun nanofiber scaffolds have resemblance to natural tissue and advantages, such as high surface-to-volume ratio, tunable porosity, ease of surface functionalization, and similarity to the fibrous structure of natural extracellular matrix in terms of scale and morphology. On the other hand, electrospun nanofiber scaffolds have different designs for regeneraton of different tissues. In this chapter, the applications of electrospun nanofiber scaffolds in tendon, vascular, and nerve tissues are discussed. Finally, we conclude that electrospun nanofibers have good potential for tissue engineering applications.