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Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) is currently a prime focus of research due to an enormous clinical need. In this work, a novel functional material, Poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate), P(3HO), a medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), produced using bacterial fermentation, was studied as a new potential material for CTE. Engineered constructs with improved mechanical properties, crucial for supporting the organ during new tissue regeneration, and enhanced surface topography, to allow efficient cell adhesion and proliferation, were fabricated. Our results showed that the mechanical properties of the final patches were close to that of cardiac muscle. Biocompatibility of the P(3HO) neat patches, assessed using Neonatal ventricular rat myocytes (NVRM), showed that the polymer was as good as collagen in terms of cell viability, proliferation and adhesion. Enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation properties were observed when porous and fibrous structures were incorporated to the patches. Also, no deleterious effect was observed on the adults cardiomyocytes’ contraction when cardiomyocytes were seeded on the P(3HO) patches. Hence, P(3HO) based multifunctional cardiac patches are promising constructs for efficient CTE. This work will provide a positive impact on the development of P(3HO) and other PHAs as a novel new family of biodegradable functional materials with huge potential in a range of different biomedical applications, particularly CTE, leading to further interest and exploitation of these materials.

Co-axial electrospraying and electrospinning are versatile electrohydrodynamic (EHD) techniques that can be used to encapsulate a variety of materials in the form of polymeric particles and fibres via a one step process. The successful production of uniform encapsulated products in co-axial EHD (CEHD) processing depends on multiple parameters including solution concentration, applied voltage and needle capillary diameter. Although many studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of these parameters, there has been very limited research on how the axial displacement between the two needle tips affects the final products formed. Hence the purpose of this study was to adjust the positioning of the inner needle such that its tip extends beyond, is level with or resides inside that of the outer needle and to thus determine the most effective arrangement for controlling product size, uniformity and/or yield. Core–shell particles were prepared using two polymers, poly(lactic-co-glycolic)acid (PLGA) as the shell and polymethylsilsesquioxane (PMSQ) as the core and core–shell fibres using PMSQ as the shell and a volatile liquid, perfluorohexane (PFH) as the core. The products formed were analyzed by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). After analysis, it was concluded that the most effective arrangement for generating both particles and fibres with the optimal combination of size, uniformity and yield was to have the inner needle 2 mm inside the outer needle. This allows for formation of a stable cone–jet and successful encapsulation of the inner liquid within the outer liquid, before the outer stable cone–jet forms. The corresponding collected product diameter and percentage of products in which material was successfully encapsulated were found to be 0.6 ± 0.1 μm and 85 ± 3% respectively for particles and 9 ± 1 μm and 92 ± 2% for fibres.

In recent years, the thermally induced phase-separation process has been used extensively to form porous materials, such as scaffolds and drug delivery devices with pore sizes ranging from the nano- to the micro-scale. This chapter discusses the methods that are used for creating these tissue-engineering scaffolds. Porous tissue scaffolds offer several benefits for the engineering of soft tissues. These most notably include infiltration of cells and tissue infiltration together with vascularization to support perfusion of oxygen and nutrients. Phase separation technologies provide an almost unrivaled platform for the manufacture of 3D tissue-engineering scaffolds. The manufacturing processes involved are often relatively low cost, scalable, and compatible with a wide range of materials. The structural features attained can be designed to resemble native extracellular matrix or provide novel substrates capable of stimulating specific cellular responses. These attributes are likely to result in the technology being increasingly utilized as the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine grows.

The electrohydrodynamic (EHD) technique has traditionally been confined to the bench-top. Recently, a portable EHD device was constructed that allows the process to be applied in a much more flexible and versatile manner. In this article, the effect of electrode and collector height on the fibers generated by EHD and wound-dressing forming capabilities of the device tested on different types of simulated wound morphologies were investigated. Dressings were also fabricated on living tissue to investigate jet behavior and product morphology. The EHD device was found to be capable of controlled deposition of micrometer-sized poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) acid fibers that can form an opaque, waterproof wound dressing on human skin within a few minutes with excellent adherence.

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) processing has attracted substantial interest in the technological and pharmaceutical sectors in recent years. Given the complexity of the process, exploring new ideas for EHD electrospraying and electrospinning delivery is a challenge. In this article, the design, construction and testing of a portable handheld EHD multi-needle device are described to produce multifunctional particles and fibers. Solid and encapsulated polymer particles and fibers were generated in order to study the performance of the device. The intrinsic properties of the feed solution/suspension and the processing conditions were adjusted to ensure robustness of the process and give uniform and reproducible products, with diameters ranging from the sub-micrometer scale to a few micrometers. These products have a broad range of applications in many advanced industrial sectors e.g. drug delivery systems, wound dressing patches, low calorie food products and cosmetics. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Tissue engineering is a rapidly advancing field that is likely to transform how medicine is practised in the near future. For hollow organs such as those found in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems or gastrointestinal tract, tissue engineering can provide replacement of the entire organ or provide restoration of function to specific regions. Larger tissue-engineered constructs often require biomaterial-based scaffold structures to provide support and structure for new tissue growth. Consideration must be given to the choice of material and manufacturing process to ensure the de novo tissue closely matches the mechanical and physiological properties of the native tissue. This review will discuss some of the approaches taken to date for fabricating hollow organ scaffolds and the selection of appropriate biomaterials.

Encapsulation of materials in fibres with a well-controlled size distribution is an important application of the electrospinning technique. This study investigates the effect of key parameters of the coaxial electrospinning process including flow rate, applied voltage and polymer concentration on the efficient encapsulation and size distribution of perfluorohexane (PFH) in polymethylsilsesquioxane (PMSQ) microfibres. Perfluorohexane can be exchanged for a drug via a simple diffusion-controlled process. By altering the polymer concentration and processing parameters, PMSQ microfibres with different diameters, PFH core size and core-to-core distance were obtained. It was found that PFH-encapsulated fibres with a diameter between 8 and 15 μm can be prepared when the PMSQ concentration is kept between 55–70 wt%. The PFH regions (cores) encapsulated in the fibre are uniformly distributed and of size 5–14 μm. The core-to-core distance significantly increased from 4 μm to 22 μm when the applied voltage was increased from 8 kV to 11 kV. These results indicate a potential strategy for controlling fibre diameter, core size and core-to-core distance by using coaxial electrospinning as the forming procedure and thus this work will help to advance biomedical engineering applications, for example, drug delivery, scaffolding for tissue engineering and wound dressing.

Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) is currently a prime focus of research because of an enormous clinical need. In the present work, a novel functional material, poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate), P(3HO), a medium chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), produced using bacterial fermentation, was studied as a new potential material for CTE. Engineered constructs with improved mechanical properties, crucial for supporting the organ during new tissue regeneration, and enhanced surface topography, to allow efficient cell adhesion and proliferation, were fabricated. Results showed that the mechanical properties of the final patches were close to that of cardiac muscle. Biocompatibility of neat P(3HO) patches, assessed using neonatal ventricular rat myocytes (NVRM), showed that the polymer was as good as collagen in terms of cell viability, proliferation and adhesion. Enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation properties were observed when porous and fibrous structures were incorporated into the patches. In addition, no deleterious effect was observed on adult cardiomyocyte contraction when cardiomyocytes were seeded on the P(3HO) patches. Hence, P(3HO)-based multifunctional cardiac patches are promising constructs for efficient CTE. This work will have a positive impact on the development of P(3HO) and other PHAs as a novel new family of biodegradable functional materials with huge potential in a range of different biomedical applications, particularly CTE, leading to further interest and exploitation of these materials. Copyright © 2016 John WileySons, Ltd.

PURPOSE: To produce electrospun polymeric fibrous wound dressing patches that can release the antibiotic drug amoxicillin in a controlled manner. METHODS: Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) acid (PLGA) fibrous dressings with entrapped amoxicillin were produced by electrospinning. The morphology and successful entrapment of amoxicillin in the PLGA fibrous dressings were validated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The rate of drug release from the dressing patches was measured in various media for a period of 21 days using UV spectroscopy. RESULTS: PLGA fibres entrapping amoxicillin were collected for 300 s and then cut to form square patches with an average weight of 55 mg. Each dressing patch contained ~2 mg of amoxicillin. The mean fibre diameter was 2.2 ± 0.4 μm. The drug release from the PLGA dressings was found to be different for each medium during the 21-day release period with the highest and lowest concentration of drug released observed when the dressings were immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF) and phosphate buffered saline (PBS), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The release profiles obtained in this study and the well-established biocompatibility of PLGA indicate that the fibre-based patches with entrapped amoxicillin fabricated in this work are very well suited for applications in wound healing and infection control.

The purpose of this research was to produce multi-dimensional scaffolds containing biocompatible particles and fibres. To achieve this, two techniques were combined and used: T-Junction microfluidics and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) processing. The former was used to form layers of monodispersed bovine serum albumin (BSA) bubbles, which upon drying formed porous scaffolds. By altering the T-Junction processing parameters, bubbles with different diameters were produced and hence the scaffold porosity could be controlled. EHD processing was used to spray or spin poly(lactic-co-glycolic) (PLGA), polymethysilsesquioxane (PMSQ) and collagen particles/fibres onto the scaffolds during their production and after drying. As a result, multifunctional BSA scaffolds with controlled porosity containing PLGA, PMSQ and collagen particles/fibres were obtained. Product morphology was studied by optical and scanning electron microscopy. These products have potential applications in many advanced biomedical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields e.g. bone regeneration, drug delivery, cosmetic cream lathers, facial scrubbing creams etc.