Tissue Engineering of tubular scaffolds such as artificial blood vessels, nerve conduits, or stents has become more commonplace with the advent of advanced functional materials. Electrospinning offers a unique way to process biocompatible polymers at lower temperatures enabling a wealth of new potential that was not previously available.
Artificial tubes several inches long, with customizable widths and adaptable structural properties can be processed to replace damaged tissue. These scaffolds can mimic native cellular architecture with tunable fiber sizes from nanometer to micrometer as well as variable pore sizes promoting celluralization, and thus acceptance by the body. Complex structures with aligned fibers wrapped inside of a sheath can be created to more readily mimic complex form factors such as nerve conduits.
This presentation will highlight some of the recent advances in electrospun tubular design focusing on the hardware capability of the Fluidnatek LE-100 with a live demonstration creating tubular structures in our lab.
