Biomaterials: Electrospinning

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Electrospun biomaterials hold huge potential to create better medical implants and enable improved laboratory research. This is because electrospinning results in fibrous materials capable of recreating extra-cellular matrix. Electrospun materials inherently provide powerful bio-physical cues tomimic native tissue, encouraging normal biological function. Harnessing this biomimicry can allow deliberate targeting of cell biology to improve cell-material responses. Electrospun biomaterials can also undergo significant functionalization to increase their bioactivity. Electrospinning utilizes electrostatic forces to produce fibers from solutions. With increasing interest in the applications of electrospun biomaterials, electrospinning technology has advanced to increase the range of materials that can be electrospun, the topography of electrospun fibers and the morphology of electrospun materials. As a result, a number of electrospun materials have been developed and entered clinical practice with many more in development or clinical trials. This article gives an overview of the history of electrospinning before examining the principles and practice of electrospinning. We then look in detail at advancements in electrospinning and examples of the resulting electrospun biomaterials. We conclude by looking at the challenges currently facing electrospun biomaterials in their translation to clinical practice.