Vascular Tissue Engineering Scaffolds from Elastomeric Biodegradable Poly(L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone)(PLCL) via Melt spinning and Electrospinning

Abstract

Three dimensional scaffolds play an important role in tissue engineering as a matrix that provides the cells with a tissue specific environment and architecture. For cardiovascular applications in particular, the development of elastic scaffolds that can maintain their mechanical integrity while being exposed to cyclic mechanical strains is a necessary criterion.

The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating vascular tissue engineering scaffolds via two different approaches, namely; melt spinning and electrospinning from elastomeric biodegradable poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) copolymers.

Overall, the tubular scaffolds had porosity exceeding 70% and the mechanical properties exceeded the transverse tensile values of the natural arteries of similar caliber. The morphology was also characterized as well as the fiber diameters and the pore sizes of the structures.

In addition to spinning the polymer separately into melt spun and electrospun constructs, the novel approach in this study has been to successfully demonstrate that these two techniques can be combined to produce a two layered tubular scaffold containing both melt spun fibers and electrospun nanofibers.