Electrospinning of aligned biodegradable polymer fibers and composite fibers for tissue engineering applications

The conference proceedings will be published in the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology listed in the Scientific Citation Index (SCI) with impact factor of 2.0 as a special issue after the conferenceFibrous membranes of aligned poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) fibers have been made through electrospinning. A high-speed rotating drum was used as the fiber collector while the electric field was manipulated by using five knife-edged auxiliary electrodes. It was found that a high drum rotating speed of 3000 rpm could lead to a nearly perfect alignment of PHBV fibers during electrospinning. Multilayered fibrous structures with each layer having a different direction of fiber alignment could also be constructed through electrospinning. The electrospun PHBV fibers were further modified by incorporating carbonated hydroxyapatite (HA) nanospheres (up to 20% of HA) in the fibers. The fibrous membranes made of aligned PHBV fibers and made of HA/PHBV composite fibers should be very useful for the tissue engineering of different human body tissues. Copyright © 2007 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.link_to_subscribed_fulltextThe 2006 International Conference on Nano Science and Nano Technology, Gwangju, Korea, 7-8 December 2006. In Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, 2007, v. 7 n. 11, p. 3834-384