Engineered nanofibers with stem cells for biomimetic tissue engineering

Abstract

Attempts have been made to fabricate scaffolds to mimic the chemical composition and structural properties of extracellular matrix because one would think that a tissue-engineered scaffold with these characteristics will have a better chance at enhancing tissue regeneration. Nanofibers scaffold with versatile patterns have been successfully and relatively simple produced from many synthetic and natural polymers through the nanotechnology of electrospinning. Those patterns may mimic the diversity of tissue-specific orientation of fibers. Several studies have been conducted on bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and bone marrow-hematopoietic stem cells (BM-HSCs) attachment on electrospun collagen nanofibers and synthetic nanofibers. After further functionalization of nanofibers by biomolecules, the nanofiber has also been developed to capture stem cells efficiently. However, the significance of certain type of nanotopography or combination of several types of nanotopography in directing the expansion and differentiation of stem cells is need to be demonstrated further in the future.