Random and oriented electrospun fibers based on a multicomponent, in situ clickable elastin-like recombinamer system...

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Tissue Engineering
• Polymer Chemistry

Background:

• Elastin-like recombinamers (ELRs) are versatile biopolymers with tunable properties.
• Electrospinning is a common technique for creating fibrous scaffolds for tissue regeneration.
• Achieving stable, bioactive electrospun fibers often requires post-processing or crosslinking agents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel system for producing stable, in situ crosslinked electrospun fibers from clickable ELRs.
• To investigate the morphology and orientation control of these ELR-click fibers.
• To evaluate the cytocompatibility of the ELR-click fiber scaffolds for skin tissue engineering.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing "clickable" elastin-like recombinamer (ELR) components for in situ crosslinking during electrospinning.
• Employing a rotational electrode to achieve oriented fiber scaffolds.
• Incorporating cell-adhesion motifs (RGD peptides) into multicomponent fibers.
• Culturing human keratinocytes and fibroblasts on the ELR-click fiber scaffolds.

Main Results:

• Successfully produced stable, wrinkled ELR-click fibers via in situ crosslinking without additional treatments.
• Demonstrated control over fiber orientation, achieving both random and highly aligned scaffolds.
• Confirmed the cytocompatibility of the scaffolds through cell adhesion, proliferation, and histological analyses.
• Showcased the ability to create multicomponent fibers with incorporated bioactive domains.

Conclusions:

• The developed system efficiently produces stable, bioactive electrospun ELR-click fibers suitable for biomedical applications.
• The ability to control fiber morphology and orientation, along with inherent bioactivity, makes these scaffolds promising for skin tissue engineering.
• These findings suggest significant potential for using ELR-click fibers as advanced wound dressings and artificial skin substitutes.