TY - JOUR
T1 - Melt electrospinning writing of three-dimensional poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds with controllable morphologies for tissue engineering applications
AU - Wunner, Felix M.
AU - Bas, Onur
AU - Saidy, Navid T.
AU - Dalton, Paul D.
AU - De-Juan Pardo, Elena M.
AU - Hutmacher, Dietmar W.
PY - 2017/11/3
Y1 - 2017/11/3
N2 - This tutorial reflects on the fundamental principles and guidelines for electrospinning writing with polymer melts, an additive manufacturing technology with great potential for biomedical applications. The technique facilitates the direct deposition of biocompatible polymer fibers to fabricate well-ordered scaffolds in the sub-micron to micro scale range. The establishment of a stable, viscoelastic, polymer jet between a spinneret and a collector is achieved using an applied voltage and can be direct-written. A significant benefit of a typical porous scaffold is a high surface-to-volume ratio which provides increased effective adhesion sites for cell attachment and growth. Controlling the printing process by fine-tuning the system parameters enables high reproducibility in the quality of the printed scaffolds. It also provides a flexible manufacturing platform for users to tailor the morphological structures of the scaffolds to their specific requirements. For this purpose, we present a protocol to obtain different fiber diameters using melt electrospinning writing (MEW) with a guided amendment of the parameters, including flow rate, voltage and collection speed. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to optimize the jet, discuss often experienced technical challenges, explain troubleshooting techniques and showcase a wide range of printable scaffold architectures.
AB - This tutorial reflects on the fundamental principles and guidelines for electrospinning writing with polymer melts, an additive manufacturing technology with great potential for biomedical applications. The technique facilitates the direct deposition of biocompatible polymer fibers to fabricate well-ordered scaffolds in the sub-micron to micro scale range. The establishment of a stable, viscoelastic, polymer jet between a spinneret and a collector is achieved using an applied voltage and can be direct-written. A significant benefit of a typical porous scaffold is a high surface-to-volume ratio which provides increased effective adhesion sites for cell attachment and growth. Controlling the printing process by fine-tuning the system parameters enables high reproducibility in the quality of the printed scaffolds. It also provides a flexible manufacturing platform for users to tailor the morphological structures of the scaffolds to their specific requirements. For this purpose, we present a protocol to obtain different fiber diameters using melt electrospinning writing (MEW) with a guided amendment of the parameters, including flow rate, voltage and collection speed. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to optimize the jet, discuss often experienced technical challenges, explain troubleshooting techniques and showcase a wide range of printable scaffold architectures.
KW - 3D printing
KW - Additive manufacturing: bio-manufacturing
KW - Direct writing: tissue engineering & regenerative medicine
KW - Medical product development
KW - Melt electrospinning writing
KW - Poly(ε-caprolactone)
KW - Product development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85039995078&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3791/56289
DO - 10.3791/56289
M3 - Article
C2 - 29364204
AN - SCOPUS:85039995078
SN - 1940-087X
VL - 2017
JO - Journal of Visualized Experiments
JF - Journal of Visualized Experiments
IS - 130
M1 - e56289
ER -