Nano- and micro-fiber combined scaffolds: A new architecture for bone tissue engineering

One possible interesting way of designing a scaffold for bone tissue engineering is to base
it on trying to mimic the biophysical structure of natural extracellular matrix (ECM). This
work was developed in order to produce scaffolds for supporting bone cells. Nano and
micro fiber combined scaffolds were originally produced from starch based biomaterials by
means of a fiber bonding and a electrospinning, two step methodology. The cell culture
studies with SaOs-2 human osteoblast-like cell line and rat bone marrow stromal cells
demonstrated that presence of nanofibers influenced cell shape and cytoskeletal
organization of the cells on the nano/micro combined scaffolds. Moreover, cell viability and
Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) activity for both cell types was found to be higher in nano/micro
combined scaffolds than in control scaffolds based on fiber meshes without nanofibers.
Consequently, the developed structures are believed have a great potential on the 3D
organization and guidance of cells that is provided for engineering of 3-dimensional bone
tissues.