Affiliations: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité 977, Strasbourg, France | LIPHT (EAC 4379), Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Polymères Pour les Hautes Technologies, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France | Faculté de Chirurgie Dentaire, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France | Hôpital Central, Service de Chirurgie Orthopédique and CNRS UMR 7561, Nancy, France
Note: [] Address for correspondence: N. Benkirane-Jessel, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unité 977, 11 rue Humann, F-67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France. Tel.: +33 3 68853376; Fax: +33 3 68853379; E-mail: nadia.jessel@inserm.fr.
Abstract: Tissue engineering aims at developing functional substitutes for damaged tissues by mimicking natural tissues. In particular, tissue engineering for bone regeneration enables healing of some bone diseases. Thus, several methods have been developed in order to produce implantable biomaterial structures that imitate the constitution of bone. Electrospinning is one of these methods. This technique produces nonwoven scaffolds made of nanofibers which size and organization match those of the extracellular matrix. Until now, seldom electrospun scaffolds were produced with thickness exceeding one millimeter. This article introduces a new kind of electrospun membrane called 3D scaffold of thickness easily exceeding one centimeter. The manufacturing involves a solution of poly(ε-caprolactone) in DMF/DCM system. The aim is to establish parameters for electrospinning in order to characterize these 3D scaffolds and, establish whether such scaffolds are potentially interesting for bone regeneration.
Keywords: Tissue engineering, bone regeneration, electrospinning, 3D scaffold, nanofibers, polycaprolactone
