Pressure-assisted cell spinning: a direct protocol for spinning biologically viable cell-bearing fibres and scaffolds

Abstract

We recently pioneered the ability to directly electrospin living cells from which scaffolds to membranes were derived. This protocol, now widely referred to as ‘cell electrospinning’, is currently undergoing in-depth investigations where the post-treated cell's global gene expression to its sub-cellular components is being investigated for understanding any effects post-treating. Our motivation is to develop this method for the biomedical sciences, in particular for applications in regenerative and therapeutic medicine. In the current work, we unveil a direct cell spinning protocol which is non-electric field driven and which will compete directly with cell electrospinning. We referred to this processing method as ‘pressure-assisted spinning’ in our previous studies, where we demonstrated this route as an emerging micro/nanotechnology. In the current context, we refer to this processing protocol as ‘pressure-assisted cell spinning’ (PACS). Our developmental studies on PACS reported here show, for the first time, that this technique could be explored as an alternative approach to cell electrospinning. Pressure-assisted cell spinning now enters the direct biological scaffold to membrane formation league.