Nanofibers Application in Skin Tissue Engineering

Over the past decade tissue engineering implements the principles of engineering and life sciences to make biological substitutes that retain, repair or develop tissue function. In extracellular matrix (ECM) protein fibers diameter are smaller than the cells and could provide a direct contact with the cells in three dimensional orientations, therefore the cells must have interaction with scaffold in three dimension areas. Electrospinning as a simple and versatile technique for fabrication of biomimetic non-woven nanofibrous scaffold has gained so much attention in skin tissue engineering. Different kinds of biopolymers have been used for electrospinning process by our research team. Chondroitin sulfate as natural signaling molecules have been used in nanofibrous structure in combination with gelatin and PVA for skin tissue engineering. Considering the synthetic polymers acceptable mechanical property and natural polymers biocompatibility, it would be a good candidate to combine the high biocompatibility of natural polymers such as chondroitin sulfate and gelatin with the superior mechanical property of synthetic polymers such as polycaprolacton or PVA using mixing- electrospinning or core-shell morphology which is crucial in skin tissue engineering. The PCL/gelatin core/shell nanofibers were fabricated using emulsion electrospinning for skin tissue engineering. The fabricated nanofibrous structure could be used for hydrophobic drug delivery systems in skin wound dressing