Cell encapsulation via electrospinning

Abstract

Development of three dimensional biocompatible scaffolds that present topographical cues for tissue replacement or regeneration thru cells remodeling is one of the emerging area in tissue engineering. There is still lack of understanding on cell incorporation into nanofibers using electospinning to date as it has not been studied extensively. In this study, NIH3T3 fibroblasts were encapsulated within polysaccharide nanofibers through coaxial electrospinning technique. Nanofibers with diameter that are comparable to the size of living cells were obtained by varying the pullulan to dextran ratio and polysaccharide concentration. Fibers diameter increases significantly with increasing pullulan to dextran ratio from 3 to 10 and increasing polysaccharide concentration from 20 wt% to 28 wt%. Cells encapsulation was proven successful within nanofibers produced using solution with 25 wt% polysaccharide and polysaccharide ratio of 10 at outer to inner flow rate ratio of 3. Besides that, fluorescent images showed that the cells were uniformly distributed within the nanofibers and the cell-encapsulated nanofibers were able to retain their structure even in aqueous environment. Encapsulated cells were also found alive within the nanofibers through Live/Dead cells staining test hence, proving that cell encapsulation using coaxial electrospinning was successful. However further studies are required in order to optimize the operating parameters so that more cells can be encapsulated in a continuous manner. Still, coaxial electrospinning is a versatile technique potentially enabling the incorporation of living cells into nanofibers, which can be useful for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.