Nanofibrous tissue engineering scaffold with nonlinear elasticity created by controlled curvature and porosity

Abstract

Micro-crimped fibers have been widely used in the field of tissue repair to mimic the natural tissue structure and mechanical properties. However, the electrospun nanofibrous membrane is a kind of dense structure, which cannot meet the requirements of mechanical properties and permeability. In this study, we prepared nanofibrous scaffold with controllable porosity and crimpness by sacrificing fiber components and releasing residual stress. The results show that the crimpness of the fiber is positively related to the porosity, and with the increase of porosity, the fiber crimpness increases greatly. Meanwhile, the scaffold modulus was reduced by 86% and the elongation at break doubled, which is similar to natural blood vessels. Moreover, it is found that the porous micro-crimped fiber scaffold promotes the adhesion and diffusion of endothelial cells, and facilitates the rapid endothelialization of the scaffold, which has a great potential for practical application.