Rapid fabrication of highly porous and biocompatible composite textile tubular scaffold for vascular tissue engineering

Three dimensional (3D) constructs for vascular tissue engineering applications require scaffolds with highly porous architectures, high biocompatibility and mechanical stability. In this paper, composite fibrous tubular scaffolds composed of different ratios of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) and polyamide-6 (PA-6) were simultaneously deposited layer by layer by employing the air jet spinning (AJS) textile technique. Specifically, we report on the optimal parameters for the fabrication of composite porous scaffolds that allow for precise control over the general scaffold architecture, as well as the physical and mechanical properties of the scaffolds. In vitro cell culture study was performed to investigate the influence of polymer composition and scaffold architecture on the adhesion of EA.hy926 human endothelial cells onto the fabricated scaffolds. The cell culture results indicated that a composite scaffold with low PA-6 fibrous content is the most promising substrate for EA.hy926 adhesion and proliferation. Based on the present findings, these highly porous composite tubular constructs support endothelial cell migration and cellular infiltration, and hence represent promising nano-fibrous scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering.