Biomimetic Scaffolds for Ligament Tissue Engineering Applications

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMukasheva, Fariza
dc.date.accessioned2020-05-12T11:09:58Z
dc.date.available2020-05-12T11:09:58Z
dc.date.issued2020-05
dc.description.abstractLigament is the soft tissue that connects bone to bone and, in case of severe injury or rupture, it cannot heal itself mainly because of its poor vascularity and dynamic nature. High failure rates of surgical treatment and significant drawbacks of currently available medical approaches brought about a need for alternative treatment approaches such as tissue engineering. It carries the potential to restore the injured tissue functions by utilization of scaffolds mimicking the structure of native ligament tissue. As the initial structural unit of the ligament, collagen fibrils have a diameter ranging from 20 to 150 nm, which defines the cellular topography, physical, and mechanical properties of the tissue. Currently, ability to fabricate scaffolds with relevant fiber diameter in this range is a significant challenge. The literature review showed a scarcity in terms of bioscaffolds that mimic the foundational unit of tissue consisting of ultra-thin nanofibers with diameter not exceeding 200 nm. To cover the gap, this work aims at: i) investigating the conditions for the fabrication of sub-100 nm fibers, and ii) fabricating aligned scaffolds with bimodal diameter distribution (with two-peaks) resembling the healthy Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tissue structure, and unaligned scaffolds with unimodal diameter distribution (with a single peak) representing structure of injured ACL tissue. It is hypothesized that such scaffolds can be produced from electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) solutions in the form of unimodal and bimodal diameter distributions. For testing this hypothesis, various PCL solutions were formulated in acetone and formic acid in combination with pyridine, and electrospun to generate sub-100 nm fibers. Next, this formulation was adjusted for the production of nanofibers with a diameter of greater than 100 nm. Finally, these solutions were combined in the co-electrospinning, i.e., two-spinneret electrospinning, process to fabricate biomimetic scaffolds with bimodal and unimodal diameter distribution. Findings revealed that electrospinning of 8% and 15% PCL solutions, respectively, resulted in the production of fibers with diameters below and above 100 nm. The combined scaffold exhibited bimodal distribution of aligned fibers with the peaks around 60-80 and 160-180 nm, thus mimicking the collagen fibril diameter distribution seen in healthy ACL tissue. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study using the system of acetone and formic acid in combination with pyridine for the production of PCL nanofibers, especially sub-100 nm ultra-thin nanofibers. Another novelty is the fabrication of scaffold with a bimodal distribution to both qualitatively and quantitatively match the distribution of collagen fibrils seen in healthy ACL tissue. The biomaterial scaffold fabricated here could be used as a foundation for the development of grafts and has the potential to move the ligament tissue engineering field forward. Moreover, the study outcomes can be applied to the design of not only ligament but also other soft tissue grafts such as tendons and muscles. Therefore, this research is expected to have a society-wide impact because it aims at healing, enhancement of the health condition and life quality of a wide range of patients.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/4671
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherNazarbayev University School of Engineering and Digital Sciencesen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/*
dc.subjectAcetic aciden_US
dc.subjectAnterior cruciate ligamenten_US
dc.subjectMonopotassium phosphateen_US
dc.subjectScanning Electron Microscopyen_US
dc.subjectACLen_US
dc.subjectextracellular matrixen_US
dc.subjectECMen_US
dc.subjectResearch Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGYen_US
dc.titleBiomimetic Scaffolds for Ligament Tissue Engineering Applicationsen_US
dc.typeMaster's thesisen_US
workflow.import.sourcescience

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
MSc Thesis_Fariza Mukasheva_201778448.pdf
Size:
1.98 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Thesis
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
6.28 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

02. Master's Thesis