Electrospinning Techniques to Control Deposition and Structural Alignment of Nanofibrous Scaffolds for Cellular Orientation and Cytoskeletal Reorganization

Cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) brils in most natural tissues are not random but exhibit well-dened patterns and specic spatial orientation. Recent ndings demonstrated that oriented biopolymer-based nanobrous scaffolds have the potential for engineering blood vessels [1], neural tissue [2], and ligament tissue [3]. Furthermore, it has been shown that cell adhesion and proliferation [1] are signicantly improved on oriented nanobrous scaffolds. The contact guidance theory suggests that cells have the greatest probability of migrating in preferred orientations that are associated with chemical, structural, and/or mechanical properties of the substrate [4-6]. Consequently, it may be postulated that an oriented nanobrous scaffold would guide cell alignment along the nanobers. The cell arrangement onto an oriented nanobrous scaffold could be due to the contact guidance and/or to cytoskeletal reorganization. Aligned cells could then be used to remodel and modulate the regenerated ECM and microenvironment [7].