NJIT eTD: The New Jersey Institute of Technology's electronic Theses & Dissertations
Title:
Fabrication of nanofiber scaffolds by electrospinning and it's potential for tissue engineering
Author:
Shanmugasundaram, Shobana
Document Type:
Thesis
Department:
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Degree:
Master of Science
Major:
Biomedical Engineering
Advisory Committee:
Jaffe, Michael
Arinzeh, Treena Livingston
Collins, George
Thesis Date:
2004, May
Keywords:
Nanofiber scaffolds
Electrospinning
Tissue engineering
Availability:
Unrestricted
Abstract:

Electrospinning is a fabrication process that uses an electric field to control the deposition of polymer fibers on to a target substrate. This electrospinning strategy can be used to fabricate fibrous polymer mats composed of fiber diameters ranging from several microns down to tens of nanometers. This study assesses the potential of electrospinning, as an alternative scaffold fabrication technique for tissue engineering applications. In this study, electrospinning is adapted to produce tissue-engineering scaffolds of two different size ranges composed of non-woven poly-L-lactide (PLLA) nanofibers and as a first study, the potential use of these scaffolds as tissue engineering scaffolds was assessed with the cell proliferation of Mesenchymal stem cells. Electrospun fibers were characterized for fiber diameter, porosity, pore size and its distribution. The electrospun scaffolds achieved a high surface area and porosity. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) were seeded on to electrospun PLLA scaffolds having two different fiber diameters. The cell-polymer constructs were cultured under static culture conditions. Cell proliferation study was performed. The results showed that MSC tend to proliferate well on nanofibers than on microfibers.

Complete Thesis:
njit-etd2004-069 (87 pages ~ 6,152 KB pdf)
Feedback:
Please complete this Feedback Form to inform us about your experience using this website. It will assist us in better serving your information needs in the future. Thank You!
Created December 22, 2004
To view these documents you will need the Acrobat Reader Plug-in. If you do not have it you can download it free from