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Electrospun Collagen Nanofibers and Their Applications in Skin Tissue Engineering

Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine volume 14, pages 699–718 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Electrospinning is a simple and versatile technique to fabricate continuous fibers with diameter ranging from micrometers to a few nanometers. To date, the number of polymers that have been electrospun has exceeded 200. In recent years, electrospinning has become one of the most popular scaffold fabrication techniques to prepare nanofiber mesh for tissue engineering applications. Collagen, the most abundant extracellular matrix protein in the human body, has been electrospun to fabricate biomimetic scaffolds that imitate the architecture of native human tissues. As collagen nanofibers are mechanically weak in nature, it is commonly cross-linked or blended with synthetic polymers to improve the mechanical strength without compromising the biological activity. Electrospun collagen nanofiber mesh has high surface area to volume ratio, tunable diameter and porosity, and excellent biological activity to regulate cell function and tissue formation. Due to these advantages, collagen nanofibers have been tested for the regeneration of a myriad of tissues and organs. In this review, we gave an overview of electrospinning, encompassing the history, the instrument settings, the spinning process and the parameters that affect fiber formation, with emphasis given to collagen nanofibers’ fabrication and application, especially the use of collagen nanofibers in skin tissue engineering.

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Affiliations

  1. Tissue Engineering Centre, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Jia Xian Law

  2. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Ling Ling Liau & Ruszymah Idrus

  3. Ear, Nose and Throat Consultant Clinic, Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital, 68000, Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Aminuddin Saim

  4. Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, School of Medicine, Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 7QB, UK

    Ying Yang

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  1. Jia Xian Law
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  2. Ling Ling Liau
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  4. Ying Yang
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  5. Ruszymah Idrus
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All the authors participate in drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content. All the authors give final approval of the version to be published.

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Correspondence to Ruszymah Idrus.

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Law, J.X., Liau, L.L., Saim, A. et al. Electrospun Collagen Nanofibers and Their Applications in Skin Tissue Engineering. Tissue Eng Regen Med 14, 699–718 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13770-017-0075-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13770-017-0075-9

Keywords

  • Electrospinning
  • Collagen
  • Skin
  • Tissue engineering
  • Nanofiber
  • Scaffold