The Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
J Biomed Mater Res A. 2013 Dec;101(12):3474-81. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.34656. Epub 2013 Apr 18.
Electrospun scaffolds are widely used in tissue engineering; however, a common problem is the poor cell infiltration because of the small pore size and tightly packed structure of these fibrous scaffolds. To address this issue, a novel technique was developed to fabricate electrospun silk fibroin (SF) scaffolds with rather macropores and high porosity using electrospraying-generated PEO microparticles as porogen. The morphology and pore size of MPES scaffolds were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy. It was revealed that MPES scaffold had a relatively loose structure with an increase of mean pore size (i.e., approx. 30 μm of MPES vs. approx. 5 μm of traditional electrospun scaffolds (TES) and porosity (i.e., 95% vs. 84% of TES). Culture of mouse 3T3 fibroblast in TES and MPES scaffold revealed that both scaffolds could support cell attachment, spread and proliferation. Yet, cell inflitration in vitro under the static culture condition only occurred in the MPES scaffold. Subcutaneous implantation of scaffolds in rats further confirmed that the tissue ingrowth was more efficient in the MPES scaffold compared to TES scaffold. Thus, the use of PEO microparticles as porogen was a feasible and effective method for creating macroporous electrospun SF scaffold, which provided an alternative to address the limitation of cell infiltration associated with electrospun fibrous scaffold.
静电纺丝支架广泛应用于组织工程中；然而，由于这些纤维支架的小孔径和紧密堆积的结构，细胞渗透不良是一个常见的问题。为了解决这个问题，开发了一种新的技术，使用电喷雾生成的 PEO 微球作为致孔剂来制造具有较大孔径和高孔隙率的静电纺丝丝素（SF）支架。通过扫描电子显微镜评估了 MPES 支架的形态和孔径。结果表明，MPES 支架具有相对疏松的结构，平均孔径增大（即 MPES 约 30μm，而传统静电纺丝支架（TES）约 5μm，孔隙率增大（即 MPES 约 95%，TES 约 84%）。在 TES 和 MPES 支架中培养小鼠 3T3 成纤维细胞表明，两种支架都能支持细胞附着、伸展和增殖。然而，在静态培养条件下，体外细胞渗透仅发生在 MPES 支架中。支架在大鼠皮下植入进一步证实，与 TES 支架相比，组织向内生长在 MPES 支架中更有效。因此，使用 PEO 微球作为致孔剂是制造大孔静电纺丝 SF 支架的一种可行且有效的方法，为解决与静电纺丝纤维支架相关的细胞渗透限制提供了一种替代方法。
