Tissue Engineering Scaffolds from Electrospun All-Cellulose Nanocomposite Nanofibers Reinforced with Cellulose Nanocrystals

摘要

1. Uniaxially aligned cellulose nanofibers with well oriented cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) embedded were successfully fabricated via electrospinning. 2. Tensile strength and elastic modulus of ECCNN in the fiber alignment direction were largely enhanced. 3. Cell culture experiments demonstrated that ECCNN were essentially non-toxic to human cells, and cells could proliferate rapidly not only on the surface but also deep inside the ECCNN. 4. More importantly, the aligned nanofibers of ECCNN exhibited a strong effect on directing cellular organization. This feature made the scaffold particularly useful for various artificial tissues or organs, such as blood vessel, tendon, nerve, etc., in which cell orientation was crucial for their performance.