Cell-Electrospinning and Its Application for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Electrospinning has gained great interest in the field of regenerative medicine, due to its fabrication of a native extracellular matrix-mimicking environment. The micro/nanofibers generated through this process provide cell-friendly surroundings which promote cellular activities. Despite these benefits of electrospinning, a process was introduced to overcome the limitations of electrospinning. Cell-electrospinning is based on the basic process of electrospinning for producing viable cells encapsulated in the micro/nanofibers. In this review, the process of cell-electrospinning and the materials used in this process will be discussed. This review will also discuss the applications of cell-electrospun structures in tissue engineering. Finally, the advantages, limitations, and future perspectives will be discussed.

Keywords: cell-electrospinning; cell-laden scaffold; micro/nano structure; tissue engineering.

Figure 1

(a) Electrospinning process with the basic components. (b) Extracellular matrix (ECM) structure and cell–cell interconnectivity on a flat, micro, and nano structure. (c) Cell-electrospinning process with the processing parameters.

Figure 2

(a) Schematic and optical image for fabrication process. (b) SEM/fluorescence (live/dead) images of fabricated cell (MG63)-laden electrospun fibers. (c) Optical images of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) stained cells. Figure adapted with permission from [21]. Copyright 2015 Elsevier.

Figure 3

(a) Optical images of the fabrication process for electrospun cardiac patch. Fluorescence images of GFP-labeled cardiac cells (left), MyBP-C/sarcomeric α-actin/F-actin stained cardiac cell (middle), and connexin-43/myomesin/nuclei stained cardiac cell (right). Figure adapted with permission from [57]. Copyright 2014 The Royal Society of Chemistry. (b) Schematic/optical/SEM images of electrospinning process for generating aligned micro/nanofibers. Optical/fluorescence images of electrospun C2C12 myoblast cells-laden micro/nanofibers. Figure adapted with permission from [30]. Copyright 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Figure 4

(a) Optical/schematic image of the fabrication process for cell electrospinning using 1321N1 human astrocytes. Optical images of the 1321N1 cells cultured for 55 h (left), 80 h (middle), and 144 h (right). Figure adapted with permission from [18]. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society. (b) Schematic/optical image of cell electrospinning using mouse neuroblastoma (N2A) cells. Optical images of electrospun N2A cells in situ and after 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h. Figure adapted with permission from [20]. Copyright 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Figure 5

(a) Optical images of electrospun adipose stem cells (ASCs). (b) SEM images of ASCs after 7 days and 28 days of culture. Figure adapted with permission from [22]. Copyright 2015 Elsevier.