Postfabrication Tethering of Molecular Gradients on Aligned Nanofibers of Functional Poly(ε-caprolactone)s.

ABSTRACT: Substrates with combinations of topographical and biochemical cues are highly useful for a number of fundamental biological investigations. Tethered molecular concentration gradients in particular are highly desired for a number of biomedical applications including cell migration. Herein, we report a versatile method for the fabrication of aligned nanofiber substrates with a tunable concentration gradient along the fiber direction. 4-Dibenzocyclooctynol (DIBO) was used as an initiator for the ring-opening copolymerization of ε-caprolactone (εCL) and allyl-functionalized ε-caprolactone (AεPCL), which yielded a well-defined polymer with orthogonal functional handles. These materials were fabricated into aligned nanofiber substrates via touch-spinning. Fibers were modified post-spinning with

SUBMITTER: Silantyeva EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7546418 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature