Cell behaviour on electrospun biodegradable fibrous membranes: effects of fiber diameter and fiber alignment

Abstract

Electrospinning has been intensively investigated recently for constructing fibrous tissue engineering scaffolds. It has been shown by others that alternations in surface topography of electrospun fibrous membranes could cause diverse cell responses. In this study, the effects of fiber diameter and fiber alignment on cell behaviour were investigated. Four groups of fibrous membranes of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) were made via electrospinning: fibers of micron or submicron diameters in the non-woven or aligned state. SaOS-2 human osteoblasts were seeded onto samples of the four groups of membranes. It was found that all fibrous membranes allowed the attachment of SaOS-2 cells, followed by a period of rapid cell proliferation. In particular, the number of proliferated cells on submicron fibers was higher than that on microfibers after 14 day cell culture. SaOS-2 cells grew and migrated along the direction of aligned fibers whereas the cells seeded on non-woven membranes spread randomly in all directions.