Development of cylindrical microfibrous scaffold using melt-spinning method for vascular tissue engineering

In this report, we demonstrated fabrication of cylindrical scaffold made of poly (lactide-co-caprolactone) (PLCL) fibers for vascular tissue engineering by the melt-spinning method with use of a commercially available cotton candy machine. This method was able to generate microfibrous cylindrical scaffold with the fiber diameter ranged of 1–17 µm. It was found that the microfibrous scaffold showed greater mechanical properties including elastic modulus and ring tensile strength than those of cylindrical microporous PLCL scaffold prepared by the phase separation method. Biological test using hMSCs also demonstrated that the microfibrous scaffold exhibited better cells growth behavior including larger cell area and aspect ratio than the microporous scaffold after 3 h culture. Cell proliferation on the microfibrous scaffold was significantly higher than that on the microporous scaffold during 7 days culture. In conclusion, microfibrous scaffold with improved mechanical and biological properties was successfully fabricated using the melt-spinning method.