Orientated and diameter-controlled fibrous scaffolds fabricated using the centrifugal electrospinning technique for stimulating the behaviours of fibroblast cells

Abstract

Centrifugal electrospinning (CES) was developed by integrating the electrospinning (ES) and centrifugal spinning (CS) concepts to produce oriented and diameter-controlled fibrous scaffolds which were then applied to stimulate the behaviour of fibroblast cells. During the fabrication process, polymer concentrations, rotational speeds, operating voltages, and needle sizes were key parameters to affect the diameters of produced fibres. The mathematical model indicated that the centrifugal force with the power of 2 was the main influence in fabricating thinner fibres, followed by electrostatic force with the power of 1. The developed CES technique could fabricate fibres scaffold ranging from 210 ± 50 nm to 2814 ± 96 nm by only applying low operating voltages and rotation speed which were 10 kV and up to 2000 rpm, respectively. Through optimum parameter, random and aligned nanofibrous were fabricated with the diameter being distributed mainly at 200–400 nm. Aligned nanofibrous demonstrated a high degree of orientation when 88% of the nanofibrous varied at 0°–10°. Compared to random structure, aligned nanofibrous presented high tensile strength, which was approximately 4.35 MPa and appropriate flexibility with 73% of elongation break. Aligned nanofibrous exhibited high cell viabilities with a 2.34 absorbance rate at day 14. The fibroblast cells elongated and accelerated in the orientation of the aligned nanofibrous. Results suggest that fibre aligned scaffolds are possible candidates for wound dressing application.