Ion-induced electrospinning of hierarchical spiderweb-like bioscaffolds

Abstract

Tissue engineered scaffolds need to possess various functionalities, including biocompatibility, mechanical support, bioactivity, and vascularization. The design and fabrication of bioscaffolds to attain mutual coordination among these functionalities with minimal processing complexity are a highly challenging but rewarding task. In this study, a simple, effective one-step electrospinning method was developed to fabricate hierarchical spiderweb-like bioscaffolds that achieve both superior biological and mechanical functionalities. By incorporating ionic drugs of deferoxamine mesylate and lithium chloride, the spiderweb-inspired structures with adjustable coverages (up to 100 %) were successfully created, imparting the fibrous bioscaffolds with remarkable tensile strengths (∼88.28 MPa). The strengthening mechanisms endowed by the spiderweb structure in optimizing stress distribution to delay damage and enhance load-bearing ability were elucidated through finite element simulations. Furthermore, this hierarchical spiderweb-like bioscaffold demonstrated favorable biological characteristics, including biocompatibility, osteogenesis, angiogenesis, and hemostasis. The presence of the nano-spiderweb structures significantly improved cell adhesion and differentiation on the scaffold and increased the spreading area of cells by 2–3 times. The dual-drug loaded bioscaffolds with full coverages of the spiderweb structure exhibited the least amount of bleeding (45.33 ± 27.47 mg) and the fastest hemostasis speed (82 ± 8.19 s) in the hemostasis test, compared to the control group. Overall, the outstanding performance makes the developed bioscaffolds a promising alternative for tissue repair and regeneration in the field of tissue engineering.