OBJECTIVE The development of combining mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with surface modified three-dimensional (3D) biomaterial scaffold provides a desirable alternative for replacement of damaged and diseased tissue. Nanofibrous scaffolds serve as suitable environment for cell attachment and proliferation due to their similarity to the physical dimension of the natural extracellular matrix. In t...

INTRODUCTION The native inability of nervous system to regenerate, encourage researchers to consider neural tissue engineering as a potential treatment for spinal cord injuries. Considering the suitable characteristics of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for tissue regeneration applications, in this study we investigated the adhesion, viability and proliferation of neural progenitors (der...

Fibrocartilaginous tissues such as the meniscus serve critical load-bearing roles, relying on arrays of collagen fibers to resist tensile loads experienced with normal activity. As these structures are frequently injured and possess limited healing capacity, there exists great demand for tissue-engineered replacements. Toward recreating the structural features of these anisotropic tissues in vi...

Topographical and mechanical cues are vital for cell fate, tissue development in vivo, and to mimic the native cell growth environment in vitro. To date, the combinatory effect of mechanical and topographical cues as not been thoroughly investigated. This study investigates the effect of PCL nanofiber alignment and hydrostatic pressure on stem cell differentiation for bone tissue regeneration. ...

Titanium dioxide-polyaniline/polyamide 6 (TiO(2)-PANI/PA6) composite nanofibers were prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of PA6 nanofibers and a sputtering-deposition process with a high purity titanium sputtering target. TiO(2)-PANI/PA6 composite nanofibers and PANI/PA6 composite nanofibers were fabricated for ammonia gas sensing. The ammonia sensing behaviors of the ...

Self-assembled synthetic materials are typically disordered, and controlling the alignment of such materials at the nanometer scale may be important for a variety of biological applications. In this study, we have applied directional freeze-drying, for the first time, to develop well aligned three dimensional (3D) nanofibrous materials using amino acid like L-phenylalanine (Phe). 3D free-standi...

This review describes the recent developments in natural and synthetic nanofibers to support human stem cell (hSC) propagation and differentiation. Nanofibers are promising substrates for regenerative medicine because of their morphologies that structurally mimic the in vivo microenvironment, that is, the extracellular matrix (ECM). Cellular behavior, including attachment, proliferation, and di...

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanofiber membranes with novel crosshatched structures are developed and applied to both water desalination by direct contact membrane distillation (MD) CO2 separation gas absorption. Crosshatched produced from a PTFE-poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO) emulsion depositing alternating layers of aligned fibers oriented in perpendicular directions. This is followed sintering ...

Y-shaped carbon nanofibers as a multi-branched carbon nanostructure have potential applications in electronic devices. In this article, we report that several types of Y-shaped carbon nanofibers are obtained from ethanol flames. These Y-shaped carbon nanofibers have different morphologies. According to our experimental results, the growth mechanism of Y-shaped carbon nanofibers has been discuss...