Fabrication of Highly Aligned Electrospun Collagen Nanofibers for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Tissue engineering is aimed at tissue recovery, replacement or regeneration by designing materials inspired by biomimetics to recreate the natural environment for better cell and tissue growth. It is important to mimic the fibrillar structure of the extracellular matrix, essential for cellular organization, survival, and function. Collagen is a major constituent of many tissues and organs, as a result, collagen matrices are often used as a surrogate extracellular matrix for in vitro tissue engineering and in vivo tissue regeneration or repair. This work describes the fabrication of membranes formed by highly aligned collagen nanofibers by electrospinning for use in tissue engineering. Collagen was obtained by homogenization and enzymatic hydrolysis of bovine Achilles tendon, obtaining two samples: high purity collagen and the non-hydrolyzed fraction with 40% collagen. Both samples could be generated randomly oriented electrospun nanofibrous membranes when analyzed by confocal microscopy. The fabrication and incorporation of a rotating collector allowed us to obtain highly aligned nanofibrous membranes of the non-hydrolyzed fraction when we varied the speed of the collector.