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Review
. 2018 Apr 20;8(4):259.
doi: 10.3390/nano8040259.

Polymer-Based Electrospun Nanofibers for Biomedical Applications

Abdullah M Al-Enizi  1 , Moustafa M Zagho  2 , Ahmed A Elzatahry  3
Affiliations
Review

Polymer-Based Electrospun Nanofibers for Biomedical Applications

Abdullah M Al-Enizi et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Electrospinning has been considered a promising and novel procedure to fabricate polymer nanofibers due to its simplicity, cost effectiveness, and high production rate, making this technique highly relevant for both industry and academia. It is used to fabricate non-woven fibers with unique characteristics such as high permeability, stability, porosity, surface area to volume ratio, ease of functionalization, and excellent mechanical performance. Nanofibers can be synthesized and tailored to suit a wide range of applications including energy, biotechnology, healthcare, and environmental engineering. A comprehensive outlook on the recent developments, and the influence of electrospinning on biomedical uses such as wound dressing, drug release, and tissue engineering, has been presented. Concerns regarding the procedural restrictions and research contests are addressed, in addition to providing insights about the future of this fabrication technique in the biomedical field.

Keywords: blood vessels; bone; drug release; electrospinning; medical prostheses; nanofibers; tissue engineering; wound dressing.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors of this review article declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An illustrative diagram of the desired characteristics of wound dressing products. Reproduced with permission from [38,39]. Elsevier, 2011.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Presence of would healings at 1, 4, 7, and 10 days after adding (a) 30% LZ loaded CS–EDTA/PVA nanofiber mats, (b) gauze (-ve control), and (c) commercial antibacterial gauze dressing (Sofra-tulle®) (+ve control). Reproduced with permission from [59]. Elsevier, 2012.
Figure 3
Figure 3
FE-SEM images of (a) neat PU, (b) ZnO doped PU, and (c) ZnO/Ag-doped PU nanofibers. Reproduced with permission from [64]. Elsevier, 2013.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Design and performance of electro hydrodynamic multi-needle spray gun for a wide range of biomedical uses. Reproduced with permission from [65]. Elsevier, 2013.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Synthesized porous core/shell composite nanofibers by coaxial electrospinning Reproduced with permission from [84]. Elsevier, 2012.
Figure 6
Figure 6
An illustrative diagram of the preparation procedure of dual drug-loaded fibers and the location of the two drugs sited in the composite fibers. Reproduced with permission from [97]. Elsevier, 2012.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(a) Scaffold before crosslinking; (b) scaffold before crosslinking at a magnification power of 1800×; (c) immunohistochemical analysis utilizing antibodies specific to collagen type I; (d) scaffold with 15% elastin shown a homogenous elastin network. Reproduced with permission from [119]. Elsevier, 2006.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Illustrative scheme of the method of synthesizing the tubular scaffold membranes. Reproduced with permission from [120]. Elsevier, 2012.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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