Applications of electrospun nanofibers in neural tissue engineering

Abstract

Autografting and synthetic nerve grafts are options clinically to repair peripheral nerve defects which can occur due to trauma or a surgery. However, autografting suffers from limited donor site availability and synthetic nerve grafts have low efficiencies in repairing nerve defects. Recently electrospun nanofibers have emerged as an alternative approach to remedy these deficiencies. Electrospun nanofibers offer enhanced neurite outgrowth, ability to produce nanofiber based nerve guidance conduits and provides mechanical and biochemical cues to differentiate stem cells that have all shown promising results in neural tissue engineering.