Mouthuy Pierre-Alexis, Zargar Nasim, Hakimi Osnat, Lostis Emilie, Carr Andrew
Botnar Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Biofabrication. 2015 May 19;7(2):025006. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/7/2/025006.
Soft tissue injuries represent a substantial and growing social and economic burden. Medical fibres are commonly used to repair these injuries during surgery. Patient's outcomes are, however, not promising with around 40% of surgical repairs failing within the first few months after surgery due to poor tissue regeneration. The application of nanofibrous filaments and yarns as medical fibres and scaffolds has been suggested to improve soft tissue regeneration and enhance the quality of the repair. However, due to a lack of robustness and reliability of the current fabrication methods, continuous nanofibrous filaments cannot be manufactured and scaled up in industrial settings and are not currently available for clinical use. We have developed a robust and automated method that enables the manufacture of continuous electrospun filaments and which has the potential to be integrated into existing textile production lines. The technology uses a wire guide to form submicrofibres in a dense, narrow mesh which can be detached as a long and continuous thread. The thread can then be stretched and used to create multifilament yarns which can imitate the hierarchical architecture of tissues such as tendons and ligaments. Electrospun polydioxanone yarns produced by this method showed improved cellular proliferation and adhesion when compared to medical monofilament fibres in current clinical use. In vivo, the electrospun yarns showed a good safety profile with mild foreign body reaction and complete degradation within 5 months after implantation. These results suggest that this filament collection method has the potential to become a useful platform for the fabrication of future medical textiles.
软组织损伤构成了巨大且不断增长的社会和经济负担。在手术过程中，医用纤维常用于修复这些损伤。然而，患者的治疗效果并不理想，约40%的手术修复在术后头几个月内失败，原因是组织再生不良。有人提出应用纳米纤维长丝和纱线作为医用纤维和支架，以改善软组织再生并提高修复质量。然而，由于目前制造方法缺乏稳健性和可靠性，连续纳米纤维长丝无法在工业环境中制造和扩大规模，目前也无法用于临床。我们开发了一种稳健且自动化的方法，能够制造连续的电纺长丝，并且有可能集成到现有的纺织生产线中。该技术使用一个导丝器在致密、狭窄的网眼中形成亚微纤维，这些亚微纤维可以作为一根长而连续的线分离出来。然后，这根线可以被拉伸并用于制造复丝纱线，这种纱线可以模仿肌腱和韧带等组织的分层结构。与目前临床使用的医用单丝纤维相比，通过这种方法生产的电纺聚二氧六环酮纱线显示出更好的细胞增殖和粘附能力。在体内，电纺纱线显示出良好的安全性，异物反应轻微，植入后5个月内完全降解。这些结果表明，这种长丝收集方法有潜力成为未来医用纺织品制造的一个有用平台。
