Electrospinning of tissue engineered blood vessel scaffolds utilising multimodal fibre distributions and dynamic liquid collected yarns
O'Connor, Richard A.
(2018)
Electrospinning of tissue engineered blood vessel scaffolds utilising multimodal fibre distributions and dynamic liquid collected yarns.
PhD thesis, Dublin City University.
The successful replacement of small-diameter blood vessels, affected by cardiovascular disease, with natural and synthetic bypass grafts remains limited due to long-term patency issues. The development of a tissue engineered blood vessel (TEBV), with properties mimicking that of the native vessel to be replaced, may provide a potential solution. Electrospinning, a polymer processing technique capable of producing nano to micron-scale in diameter fibres has been studied extensively in the last decade as a potential technique for the fabrication of tissue scaffolds. Insufficient cell infiltration into electrospun constructs, and thus incomplete remodelling of the scaffolds, has however hindered their use in clinical applications todate. Electrospinning variations, including the production of multi-modal fibre diameter scaffolds and nanofibre bundles that offer increased porosities compared to traditional electrospun materials may allow these limitations to be overcome. This study looks at the development of a bi-layer scaffold consisting of a small diameter multi-modal core layer paired with highly porous nanofibre bundles.
Electrospun tubular core layers possessing multi-modal fibre diameter populations were created using poly(