Project Details
Projekt
Fabrication of electrospun fibre mats with defined geometry and load profile
Applicant
Professorin Dr.-Ing. Birgit Glasmacher
Subject Area
Biomaterials
Term
from 2015 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 251503496
Subproject 3 (SP3) focuses on the fabrication of fiber mats from polycaprolactone (PCL) via electrospinning. These fiber mats should have graded mechanical and geometric properties as well as have to withstand the native loading conditions. Approaches to fabricate fiber mats for in vivo studies in rats or sheep suffered from inappropriate mechanical properties of the scaffold. This issue is going to be solved in the second funding period by combining solution electrospinning with melt electrospinning. This combination allows for the fabrication of larger fiber sizes with appropriate mechanical properties. It enables the fabrication of scaffolds with load-bearing structures combined with structures mimicking the native extracellular matrix to enhance cell infiltration. The resulting scaffolds consists of a combination of micro- and nanofibers, which increases the specific surface. The specific surface is known to influence cell attachment, which is going to be investigated in SP 1. Cell adhesion forces of BM-MSCs will be measured via atomic force microscopy (AFM). Studies in the first funding period have shown the crystallinity of the polymer being one of the factors with high impact on the mechanical properties (results of SP4). The crystallinity can be influenced by changing the rotating velocity of the collector. It increases with increasing velocity. This effect as well as the blending with chitosan-g-polycaprolactone (SP4) will be used to tailor the mechanical properties of the scaffold during the next funding period. In addition, the degradation kinetics will be investigated in cooperation with SP 6. Here, mass loss as well as changes in the molecular structure (Raman spectroscopy) will be analyzed to further investigate the degradation process. The working plan of this subproject will result in a scaffold, which is tailored to the loading conditions in small and large animals. The performance of this scaffold is assessed in animal trials (SP8).
DFG Programme
Research Units
