Investigation of microporous composite scaffolds fabricated by embedding sacrificial polyethylene glycol microspheres in nanofibrous membrane

The application of electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds in tissue engineering is limited due to their small pore size which leads to the failure of cell infiltration into the scaffolds. Microporous silk fibroin (SF)/gelatin composite scaffolds with biological properties could be fabricated to mimic tissue structure for tissue engineering applications. This study aimed to present a simple method to fabricate the composite scaffolds which is based on the simultaneously electrospraying of microspheres and electrospinning of nanofibers. Different contents of polyethylene glycol (PEG) microspheres were embedded into the SF/gelatin nanofibrous membranes by varying the content of PEG microsphere. Furthermore, microspheres can be selectively leached, obtaining the single SF/gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds and retaining the hierarchical organization of the porous nanofibers. In conclusion, the multilevel microporous and nanofibrous composite scaffolds can be obtained by varying pump flow rate of electrospraying.