Influence of electrohydrodynamic jetting parameters on the morphology of PCL scaffolds

One of the important constituents in tissue engineering is scaffold, which provides structural support and suitable microenvironment for the cell attachment, growth and proliferation. To fabricate micro/nano structures for soft tissue repair and three-dimensional (3D) cell culture, the key is to improve fibre-based scaffold fabrication. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) jetting is capable of producing and orientating submicron fibres for 3D scaffold fabrication. In this work, an EHD-jetting system was developed to explore the relationship between vital processing parameters and fibre characteristics. In this study, polycaprolactone (PCL) solution prepared by dissolving PCL pellets in acetic acid was used to fabricate the scaffolds. The influence of voltage, motorized stage speed, solution feed rate, and solution concentration on fibre characteristics and scaffold pattern were studied. Morphology of the EHD-jetted PCL fibres and scaffolds were analysed using optical microscope images and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Multi-layer scaffolds with the varied coiled pattern were fabricated and analysed. Cell attachment and proliferation have to be investigated in the future by further cell culture studies on these multi-layer coiled scaffolds.