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RESEARCH ARTICLE

A new design of an electrospinning apparatus for tissue

engineering applications

2
2
Juliana R. Dias 1,2,3,4 , Cyril dos Santos , João Horta , Pedro Lopes Granja 1,3,4,5 and Paulo Jorge
Bártolo 6*
1 Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (i3S), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
2 Centre for Rapid and Sustainable Product Development (CDRsp), Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
3 Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica (INEB), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
4 Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
5 Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal
6 School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering & Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of
Manchester, UK
Abstract: The electrospinning technique is being widely explored in the biomedical field due to its simplicity to produce
meshes and its capacity to mimic the micro-nanostructure of the natural extracellular matrix. For skin tissue engineering
applications, wound dressings made from electrospun nanofibers present several advantages compared to conventional
dressings, such as the promotion of the hemostasis phase, wound exudate absorption, semi-permeability, easy conformability
to the wound, functional ability and no scar induction. Despite being a relatively simple technique, electrospinning is
strongly influenced by polymer solution characteristics, processing parameters and environmental conditions, which
strongly determine the production of fibers and their morphology. However, most electrospinning systems are wrongly
designed, presenting a large number of conductive components that compromises the stability of the spinning process. This
paper presents a new design of an electrospinning system solving the abovementioned limitations. The system was assessed
through the production of polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin nanofibers. Different solvents and processing parameters were
considered. Results show that the proposed electrospinning system is suitable to produce reproducible and homogeneous
electrospun fibers for tissue engineering applications.
Keywords: biofabrication, electrospinning, fibers, polymer solutions, tissue engineering

*Correspondence to: Paulo Jorge Bártolo, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering & Manchester Institute of Biotechnology,
University of Manchester, UK; Email: paulojorge.dasilvabartolo@manchester.ac.uk

Received: January 29, 2017; Accepted: April 10, 2017; Published Online: May 15, 2017
Citation: Dias J R, dos Santos C, Horta J, et al., 2017, A new design of an electrospinning apparatus for tissue engineering applications.
International Journal of Bioprinting, vol.3(2): 121–129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18063/IJB.2017.02.002.

1. Introduction The conventional setup of a solution electrospinning
system consists of three major components: a high
lectrospinning is an electrostatic fibre fabrication voltage power supply, a spinneret and a collector that
technique that has been attracting increasing can be used in a horizontal or vertical arrangement [5,7,8] .
Einterest due to its versatility and potential for The syringe contains a polymeric solution, pumped
[1]
applications in different fields . In the biomedical field, at a constant and controlled rate. The polymer jet is
electrospinning has been used to produce biosensors, initiated when the voltage is turned on and the opposing
filtration devices, scaffolds for tissue engineering, wound electrostatic forces overcome the surface tension of
dressing, drug delivery and enzyme immobilization the polymer. Just before the jet formation, the polymer
systems [2,3] . In tissue engineering, electrospun meshes droplet under the influence of the electric field assumes a
have a great potential due to their high surface area and cone shape with convex sides and a rounded tip, known
interconnectivity and are beneficial for tissue ingrowth as the Taylor cone [2,9,10] . During the jet’s travel, the sol-
and cell migration, coupled with controlled delivery of vent gradually evaporates, and charged polymer fibers
[10]
incorporated biomolecules [4–6] . are deposited in the collector .
A new design of an electrospinning apparatus for tissue engineering applications. © 2017 Juliana R. Dias, et al. This is an Open Access article distributed
under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/),
permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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