Abstract

Electrospinning is the unique technique, which provides forming of polymeric scaffolds for soft tissue engineering, which include tissue scaffolds for soft tissues of cardiovascular system. Such artificial soft tissues of cardiovascular system may possess mechanical properties comparable to native vascular tissues. Electrospinning technique gives the opportu nity to form fibres with nm- to μm-scale in diameter. The arrangement of obtained fibres and their surface determines the biocompatibility of the scaffolds. Polyurethanes (PU)s are being commonly used as a prostheses of cardiovascular soft tissues due to their excellent biocompatibility, non-toxicity, elasticity and mechanical properties. PUs possess also fine spinning properties. The combination of PU properties variety with an electrospinning technique, conducted at the well tailored conditions, gives unlimited possibilities of forming novel polyurethane materials suitable for soft tissue scaffolds applied in cardiovascular tissues engineering. This paper can help researches to gain more widespread and deeper understanding of designing electrospinable PU materials, which may be used as cardiovascular soft tissue scaffolds. In this paper we focus on reagents used in PU synthesis designed to increase PUs biocompatibility (polyols) and biodegradability (isocyanates). We also describe suggested surface modifications of electrospun PUs, and the direct influence of surface wettability on providing enhanced biocompatibility of scaffolds. We indicate a great influence of electrospinning parameters (voltage, flow rate, working distance) and used solvents (mostly DMF, THF and HFIP) on fibres alignment and diameter - what impacts the biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of such electrospun PU scaffolds. Moreover, we present PU modifications with natural polymers with novel approach applied in electrospinning of PU scaffolds. This work may contribute with further developing of novel electrospun PUs, which may be applied as soft tissue scaffolds of cardiovascular system.

Authors (4)