State of the art composites comprising electrospun fibres coupled with hydrogels: a review

Research into scaffolds tailored for specific tissue engineering and biomaterial applications continues to develop as these structures are commonly impeded by their limitations. For example, electrospun fibres and hydrogels are commonly exploited because of their ability to mimic natural tissues; however, their clinical use remains restricted due to negligible cellular infiltration and poor mechanical properties, respectively. A small number of research groups are beginning to investigate composite scaffolds based on electrospun fibres and hydrogels in an attempt to overcome their individual shortcomings. This review paper discusses the various methodologies and approaches currently undertaken to create these novel composite structures and their intended applications. The combination of these two commonly used scaffold architectures to create synergistically superior structures is showing potential with regards to therapeutic use within the tissue engineering community.From the Clinical EditorThis review discusses methodologies to create novel electrospun nanofibers and hydrogels, and their intended applications. The combination of these two scaffold architectures has important future clinical applications, although their use is currently limited to the experimental tissue engineering community.

Graphical AbstractThis review examines the number of methodologies that have been recently developed to combine electrospun fibres with hydrogels, creating innovative 3D nanofibre/hydrogel composites for use in tissue engineering. Currently five different techniques to create these composites have been investigated, including; laminated, fibre-encapsulated, injectable, dual electrospin–electrospray and composite coatings. Nanofibre/hydrogel composites possess superior properties to their individual phases and offer potential as future medical devices.Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (122 K)Download as PowerPoint slide