Fabrication Procedure for a 3D Hollow Nanofibrous Bifurcated-Tubular Scaffold by Conformal Electrospinning

Abstract

Electrospinning has shown great potential for the fabrication of 3D nanofibrous tubular scaffolds for bifurcated vascular grafts. However, fabrication of complex 3D nanofibrous tubular scaffolds with bifurcated or patient-specific shapes remains limited. In this study, a 3D hollow nanofibrous bifurcated-tubular scaffold was fabricated by the uniform and conformal deposition of electrospun nanofibers via conformal electrospinning. By conformal electrospinning, electrospun nanofibers are conformally deposited onto a complex shape, such as the bifurcated region, without large pores or defects. Owing to conformal electrospinning, a corner profile fidelity (FC), a measure of conformal deposition of electrospun nanofibers at the bifurcated region, was increased 4 times at the bifurcation angle (θB) of 60°, and all FC values of the scaffolds reached 100%, regardless of the θB. Furthermore, the thickness of the scaffolds could be controlled by varying the electrospinning time. Leakage-free liquid transfer was successfully achieved owing to the uniform and conformal deposition of electrospun nanofibers. Finally, the cytocompatibility and 3D mesh-based modeling of the scaffolds were demonstrated. Thus, conformal electrospinning can be used to fabricate leakage-free and complex 3D nanofibrous scaffolds for bifurcated vascular grafts.