Zhou Feng-Lei, Li Zhanxiong, Gough Julie E, Hubbard Cristinacce Penny L, Parker Geoff J M
Division of Informatics, Imaging and Data Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PT, United Kingdom.
CRUK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre in Cambridge and Manchester, UK.
Mater Des. 2018 Jan 5;137:394-403. doi: 10.1016/j.matdes.2017.10.047.
Highly hydrophilic hollow polycaprolactone (PCL) microfibres were developed as building elements to create tissue-mimicking test objects (phantoms) for validation of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These microfibres were fabricated by the co-electrospinning of PCL-polysiloxane-based surfactant (PSi) mixture as shell and polyethylene oxide as core. The addition of PSi had a significant effect on the size of resultant electrospun fibres and the formation of hollow microfibres. The presence of PSi in both co-electrospun PCL microfibre surface and cross-section, revealed by X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), enabled water to wet these fibres completely (i.e., zero contact angle) and remained active for up to 12 months after immersing in water. PCL and PCL-PSi fibres with uniaxial orientation were constructed into water-filled phantoms. MR measurement revealed that water molecules diffuse anisotropically in the PCL-PSi phantom. Co-electrospun hollow PCL-PSi microfibres have desirable hydrophilic properties for the construction of a new generation of tissue-mimicking dMRI phantoms.
高度亲水性的中空聚己内酯（PCL）微纤维被开发用作构建元素，以创建用于扩散磁共振成像（MRI）验证的组织模拟测试对象（体模）。这些微纤维是通过将基于聚己内酯-聚硅氧烷的表面活性剂（PSi）混合物作为壳层、聚环氧乙烷作为芯层进行共电纺丝制备而成。PSi的添加对所得电纺纤维的尺寸以及中空微纤维的形成有显著影响。通过X射线能量色散光谱（EDX）揭示，在共电纺PCL微纤维的表面和横截面中都存在PSi，这使得水能够完全润湿这些纤维（即接触角为零），并且在浸入水中后长达12个月仍保持活性。具有单轴取向的PCL和PCL-PSi纤维被构建成充满水的体模。磁共振测量表明，水分子在PCL-PSi体模中呈各向异性扩散。共电纺中空PCL-PSi微纤维对于构建新一代组织模拟扩散MRI体模具有理想的亲水性能。
