Highly Porous Core–Shell Polymeric Fiber Network

Abstract

Core-shell nanofibers are of great interest in the field of tissue engineering and cell biology. We fabricated porous core-shell fiber networks using an electrospinning system with a water-immersed collector. We hypothesized that the phase separation and solvent evaporation process would enable the control of the pore formation on the core-shell fiber networks. To synthesize porous core-shell fiber networks, we used polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin. Quantitative analysis showed that the sizes of gelatin-PCL core-shell nanofibers increased with PCL concentrations. We also observed that the shapes of the pores created on the PCL fiber networks were elongated, whereas the gelatin-PCL core-shell fiber networks had circular pores. The surface areas of porous nanofibers were larger than those of the nonporous nanofibers due to the highly volatile solvent and phase separation process. The porous core-shell fiber network was also used as a matrix to culture various cell types, such as embryonic stem cells, breast cancer cells, and fibroblast cells. Therefore, this porous core-shell polymeric fiber network could be a potentially powerful tool for tissue engineering and biological applications.