Journal of Tissue Science and Engineering

Enhanced Porosity without Compromising Structural Integrity: The Nemesis of Electrospun Scaffolding

Abstract

Gary L. Bowlin

Over the last decade, electrospinning to create non-woven fabrics composed of nano- and micrometer diameters fibers has gone from an unknown process to commonplace in the tissue engineering community. Unfortunately, the majority of the scaffolds fabricated have an extremely limited capacity to promote three-dimensional tissue regeneration. This is because the fine pore structure created in the scaffolding limits cellular infiltration, thus acting more as a pseudo two-dimensional surface for enhanced cell adhesion. Hence the challenge, as the use of electrospinning for fabricating tissue engineering scaffolding moves toward functional, three-dimensional tissue engineered constructs, will be to enhance the overall porosity without compromising overall structural integrity. This is a critical challenge yet to be overcome. If this processing deficiency cannot be corrected, it is highly probable that the process of electrospinning will be considered a failure in developing tissue engineering scaffolds.