Crimped Nanofibrous Biomaterials Mimic Microstructure and Mechanics of Native Tissue and Alter Strain Transfer to Cells.

ABSTRACT: To fully recapitulate tissue microstructure and mechanics, fiber crimping must exist within biomaterials used for tendon/ligament engineering. Existing crimped nanofibrous scaffolds produced via electrospinning are dense materials that prevent cellular infiltration into the scaffold interior. In this study, we used a sacrificial fiber population to increase the scaffold porosity and evaluated the effect on fiber crimping. We found that increasing scaffold porosity increased fiber crimping and ensured that the fibers properly uncrimped as the scaffolds were stretched by minimizing fiber-fiber interactions. Constitutive modeling demonstrated that the fiber uncrimping produced a nonlinear mechanical behavior similar to that of native tendon and ligament. Interestingly, fiber crimping altered

SUBMITTER: Szczesny SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5683713 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature