Electrospinning a small diameter tubular scaffold for tissue engineering blood vessels

• Main Author: Tay, Kulapattra Chongwen.
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Biomaterials
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44054
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The function of scaffolds in tissue engineering is to guide the organization, growth and differentiation of cells in constructs. They should be able to mimic the human artery biologically and mechanically. In this work, the aim was to fabricate a bilayered nanofibrous scaffold (I.D<6mm) using the electrospinning technique. The first layer would be aligned longitudinally and the second layer aligned circumferentially. This alignment mimics the respective directions of the endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells in the human blood vessel. A variety of parameters were first experimented to achieve the best circumferential and longitudinal configurations, before electrospinning a bilayer scaffold. The biodegradable material used was Poly(L-lactide-ϵ-caprolactone) (PLC). The scaffold was also subjected to characterization techniques using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to determine changes in the intrinsic properties of PLC before and after electrospinning. In this study, a longitudinally aligned nanofibrous scaffold with an inner diameter of 3.2mm and wall thickness of 70.3µm was fabricated. However a circumferentially alignment was not produced. The maximum rotation speed (2000 rpm) that the stirrer machine could provide was believed to be insufficient to attain a circumferential alignment on the tube. The bilayered tubular scaffold was still developed, but with an aligned inner layer and a random outer layer. The results from DSC, TGA and FTIR showed no large deviation in thermal and chemical properties of PLC before and after electrospinning.