Fabrication of highly aligned electrospun collagen nano-fibers for tissue engineering

JOSE A. MACIAS; EVELYN A. PIGNATTA; NOAH ANSALDO BRONSTEIN; MARIANA P. CID; NANCY A. SALVATIERRA; ROMINA COMÍN

Congreso; XXIV CONGRESO ARGENTINO DE BIOINGENIERÍA Y XIII JORNADAS DE INGENIERÍA CLÍNICA; 2023

Tissue engineering is aimed at tissue recovery, replacement or regen-eration by designing materials inspired by biomimetics to recreate the natural environment for better cell and tissue growth. It is important to mimic the fibril-lar structure of the extracellular matrix, essential for cellular organization, sur-vival, and function. Collagen is a major constituent of many tissues and organs, as a result, collagen matrices are often used as a surrogate extracellular matrix for in vitro tissue engineering and in vivo tissue regeneration or repair. This work describes the fabrication of membranes formed by highly aligned collagen nano-fibers by electrospinning for use in tissue engineering. Collagen was obtained by homogenization and enzymatic hydrolysis of bovine Achilles tendon, obtaining two samples: high purity collagen and the non-hydrolyzed fraction with 40% col-lagen. Both samples could be generated randomly oriented electrospun nano-fibrous membranes when analyzed by confocal microscopy. The fabrication and incorporation of a rotating collector allowed us to obtain highly aligned nano-fibrous membranes of the non-hydrolyzed fraction when we varied the speed of the collector.