Abstract:
For biomedical applications including tissue engineering and drug delivery,
nanofibrous polymeric matrices are of particular interest due to their biomimetic
architecture and their ability to guide biological responses through the phenomenon
of contact guidance. A popular technique to fabricate polymeric nanofibers is
electrospinning. The properties of electrospun meshes can be modulated both
during and post-fabrication through a judicious choice of system and operating
parameters. Synthetic polymers typically used in electrospinning do not naturally
possess intrinsic bioactivity to directly modulate biological responses; therefore,
electrospun meshes are often functionalized with proteins such as growth factors
which directly interact with cells and induce a spectrum of biological responses. In
most conventional approaches to functionalize electrospun meshes, proteins are
typically incorporated by blend or emulsion electrospinning wherein the protein is
doped into the polymer solution directly and blended/emulsified prior to
electrospinning
