Electrospinning nanofiber scaffolds for soft and hard tissue regeneration

Xianrui Xie^a, Yujie Chen^a^,^*, Xiaoyu Wang^a, Xiaoqing Xu^a, Yihong Shen^a, Atta ur Rehman Khan^a, Ali Aldalbahi^b^,^*(

), Allison E. Fetz^c, Gary L. Bowlin^c, Mohamed El-Newehy^b, Xiumei Mo^a^,^*(

)

Fig. 25.. Schematic representation of electrospinning setup and hierarchical assembling of continuous aligned nanofiber threads (CANT). (A) Continuous electrospinning system to produce CANT; (B) CANT as the elementary unit of the 3D assembly, mimicking the collagen fibers in native tendon; (C) Yarns composed of twisted CANT represent tendon fascicles: i) Yarn 6, ii) Yarn 9, and iii) Yarn 12; (D) Braided 3D scaffold produced using Yarns; (E) Weaving process using Yarns: (i) arrays of 1 mm pins, (ii) Yarns weaving, and (iii) final 3D Woven scaffold. Both textile scaffolds represent the tendon unit [92].