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Microfluidic Fabrication of Polymeric and Biohybrid Fibers with Predesigned Size and Shape
Published on: January 8, 2014
Nanofiber assembly by rotary jet-spinning
Mohammad Reza Badrossamay1, Holly Alice McIlwee, Josue A Goss
1Disease Biophysics Group, Wyss Institute for Biologically-Inspired Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Nano Letters
|May 25, 2010
Summary
Rotary jet-spinning offers a new method for creating aligned nanofiber structures, overcoming limitations of electrospinning. This technique enables tissue engineering applications, such as fabricating heart muscle tissue from aligned biodegradable polymer fibers.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biotechnology
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Electrospinning, a common nanofiber fabrication method, faces limitations due to high voltage requirements and low production rates.
- Developing alternative methods for producing aligned nanofiber structures is crucial for advanced applications, particularly in tissue engineering.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and characterize a novel fabrication technique, rotary jet-spinning, for producing aligned three-dimensional nanofiber structures.
- To demonstrate the utility of rotary jet-spinning for creating anisotropic scaffolds for tissue engineering applications.
Main Methods:
- Rotary jet-spinning utilizes high-speed, rotating polymer solution jets to extrude fibers, allowing control over fiber morphology, diameter, and web porosity.
- Key parameters such as nozzle geometry, rotation speed, and polymer solution properties were varied to optimize fiber fabrication.
- The technique was applied to create anisotropic arrays of biodegradable polymer fibers for tissue engineering.
Main Results:
- Rotary jet-spinning successfully produced aligned three-dimensional nanofiber structures with controllable properties.
- Neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes seeded onto the aligned fibers oriented their contractile cytoskeleton.
- The cardiomyocytes self-organized into a beating, multicellular tissue exhibiting anisotropic architecture mimicking heart muscle.
Conclusions:
- Rotary jet-spinning is a facile and versatile method for fabricating aligned nanofiber structures, overcoming electrospinning limitations.
- This technique is highly promising for tissue engineering, particularly for creating anisotropic constructs like cardiac tissue.
- Rotary jet-spinning offers an advantageous approach for polymers not suitable for electrospinning fabrication.
