Preparation of protein biomaterials scaffolds by electrospinning

摘要

The electrospinning has been postulated as a simple, versatile and industrially scalable technique that allow the obtention of nanofibers by application of a high voltage electrostatic field between a metal capillary syringe, where a polymer solution drop is deposited, and a grounded collector. One of the most promising fields of application of this technology is focused in the development of scaffolds biomaterials for the biomedical sector. However, the control of the process parameters is crucial to obtain effective products. In this sense, this work presents a systematic study of the effect of the electrospinning main parameters that can affect the diameter of the obtained fibers, specifically focused on the development of protein based scaffolds, gelatin and collagen, since they are substrates of similar nature to the fibrous components found in extracellular matrices of biological tissues. The obtained results indicate that factors such as polymer type, concentration, solvent and collector conductivity have a significant influence on the final diameter of the nanofibers. However, no influence on the diameter was observed when the voltage, flow and distance to the collector were varied.