Fabricating microparticles/nanofibers composite and nanofiber scaffold with controllable pore size by rotating...

Polymeric nanofibers fabricated via electrospinning are regarded as promising scaffolds for biomimicking a native extracellular matrix. However, electrospun scaffolds have poor porosity, resulting in cells being unable to infiltrate into the scaffolds but grow only on its surface. In this study, we modified regular electrospinning into rotating multichannel electrospinning (RM-ELSP) to produce microparticles and nanofibers simultaneously. Gelatin nanofibers (0.1-1 microm) and polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles (0.5-10 microm) were formed and well-mixed. Adjusting the concentration of PCL and/or gelatin, we can fabricate various microparticles/nanofibers composites with different sizes of PCL particles and different diameters of gelatin nanofibers depending on their concentrations (2-10%) during electrospinning. Using PCL particles as a pore generator, we obtained gelatin nanofiber scaffolds with controllable pore size and porosity. Cells adhere and grow into the scaffold easily during in vitro cell culture.