Gdansk University of Technology, Chemical Faculty, Department of Polymer Technology, Narutowicza St. 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.
Gdansk University of Technology, Chemical Faculty, Department of Polymer Technology, Narutowicza St. 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2015 Jan;46:166-76. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2014.10.027. Epub 2014 Oct 13.
Electrospinning is a unique technique, which provides forming of polymeric scaffolds for soft tissue engineering, which include tissue scaffolds for soft tissues of the cardiovascular system. Such artificial soft tissues of the cardiovascular system may possess mechanical properties comparable to native vascular tissues. Electrospinning technique gives the opportunity to form fibres with nm- to μm-scale in diameter. The arrangement of obtained fibres and their surface determine the biocompatibility of the scaffolds. Polyurethanes (PUs) are being commonly used as a prosthesis of cardiovascular soft tissues due to their excellent biocompatibility, non-toxicity, elasticity and mechanical properties. PUs also possess fine spinning properties. The combination of a variety of PU properties with an electrospinning technique, conducted at the well tailored conditions, gives unlimited possibilities of forming novel polyurethane materials suitable for soft tissue scaffolds applied in cardiovascular tissue engineering. This paper can help researches to gain more widespread and deeper understanding of designing electrospinable PU materials, which may be used as cardiovascular soft tissue scaffolds. In this paper we focus on reagents used in PU synthesis designed to increase PU biocompatibility (polyols) and biodegradability (isocyanates). We also describe suggested surface modifications of electrospun PUs, and the direct influence of surface wettability on providing enhanced biocompatibility of scaffolds. We indicate a great influence of electrospinning parameters (voltage, flow rate, working distance) and used solvents (mostly DMF, THF and HFIP) on fibre alignment and diameter - what impacts the biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of such electrospun PU scaffolds. Moreover, we present PU modifications with natural polymers with novel approach applied in electrospinning of PU scaffolds. This work may contribute with further developing of novel electrospun PUs, which may be applied as soft tissue scaffolds of the cardiovascular system.
静电纺丝是一种独特的技术，可用于为软组织工程形成聚合物支架，包括心血管系统的软组织支架。这种人工心血管软组织可能具有与天然血管组织相当的机械性能。静电纺丝技术提供了形成纳米到微米级直径纤维的机会。获得的纤维的排列及其表面决定了支架的生物相容性。由于其出色的生物相容性、无毒性、弹性和机械性能，聚醚氨酯（PU）通常被用作心血管软组织的假体。PU 还具有良好的可纺性。在精心调整的条件下，将各种 PU 性能与静电纺丝技术相结合，为形成适用于心血管组织工程的软组织支架的新型聚氨酯材料提供了无限的可能性。本文可以帮助研究人员更广泛和更深入地了解设计可静电纺丝的 PU 材料，这些材料可用作心血管软组织支架。本文重点介绍了用于提高 PU 生物相容性（多元醇）和可生物降解性（异氰酸酯）的 PU 合成用试剂。我们还描述了建议的静电纺丝 PU 的表面改性，以及表面润湿性对提供支架增强的生物相容性的直接影响。我们指出了静电纺丝参数（电压、流速、工作距离）和所用溶剂（主要是 DMF、THF 和 HFIP）对纤维取向和直径的巨大影响 - 这会影响此类静电纺丝 PU 支架的生物相容性和血液相容性。此外，我们展示了具有天然聚合物的 PU 改性，这是在静电纺丝 PU 支架中应用的新方法。这项工作可能有助于进一步开发新型静电纺丝 PU，它们可用作心血管系统的软组织支架。
