Abstract
Many types of polymer nanofibers have been introduced as artificial extracellular matrices. Their controllable properties, such as wettability, surface charge, transparency, elasticity, porosity and surface to volume proportion, have attracted much attention. Moreover, functionalizing polymers with other bioactive components could enable the engineering of microenvironments to host cells for regenerative medical applications. In the current brief review, we focus on the most recently cited electrospun nanofibrous polymeric scaffolds and divide them into five main categories: natural polymer-natural polymer composite, natural polymer-synthetic polymer composite, synthetic polymer-synthetic polymer composite, crosslinked polymers and reinforced polymers with inorganic materials. Then, we focus on their physiochemical, biological and mechanical features and discussed the capability and efficiency of the nanofibrous scaffolds to function as the extracellular matrix to support cellular function.
Highlights
Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 21. https://Tissue engineering concerns various research areas, and one of the challenges is to develop scaffolds to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM)
Speaking, drawing, self-assembly, freeze-drying, phase separation, template synthesis and electrospinning techniques are the common strategies for creating nanofibers consisting of natural or synthetic polymers [40,41]
Seeded human skin-derived precursor cells on the nanofibers showed a higher amount of DNA after 28 days on the PCL-RGD and PCL-gelatin composite scaffolds compared to the pure PCL scaffold
Summary
Tissue engineering concerns various research areas, and one of the challenges is to develop scaffolds to mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM). When attempting to build a suitable artificial scaffold, different criteria such as compounds, mechanical properties and structure must be considered Figure 1. When these criteria are optimized, the cells can function properly, such as proliferation, differentiation and migration [1,2,3]. Fabrication and properties of five categories of electrospun composed polymers, including natural polymer-natural polymer, natural polymer-synthetic polymer, synthetic polymer-synthetic polymer, crosslinked polymers and polymer–inorganic materials-especially those applied as scaffolds, are described
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