Cross-linking electrospinning

Highly fluorescent hybrid nanofibers as potential nanofibrous scaffolds for studying cell-fiber interactions

In this study, we report on the fabrication of hybrid nanofibers for labeling and bioimaging applications. Our approach is involved for developing highly fluorescent nanofibers using a blend of polylactic acid, polyethyleneglycol, and perylenediimide dyes, through the solution blow spinning technique. The nanofibers are exhibited diameters ranging from 330 nm to 420 nm. Nanofibers showed excellent red and near-infrared fluorescence emissive properties in fluorescent spectroscopy. Moreover, the strong two-photon absorption phenomenon was observed for nanofibers under confocal microscopy. To assess the applicability of these fluorescent nanofibers in bioimaging settings, we employ two types of mammalian cells B16F1 melanoma cells and J774.A1 macrophages. Both cell types exhibit negligible cytotoxicity after 24 h incubation with the nanofibers, indicating the suitability of nanofibers for cell-based experiments. We also observe strong interactions between the nanofibers and cells, as evidenced by two major events: a) the acquisition of an elongated cellular morphology with the major cellular axis parallel to the nanofibers and b) the accumulation of actin filaments along the points of contact of the cells with the fibers. Our findings demonstrate the suitability of these newly developed fluorescent nanofibers in cell-based applications for guiding cellular behavior. We expect that these fluorescent nanofibers have the potential to serve as scaffold materials for long-time tracking of cell-fiber interactions in fluorescence microscopy.

Scaffolding fundamentals and recent advances in sustainable scaffolding techniques for cultured meat development

In cultured meat (CM) production, Scaffolding plays an important role by aiding cell adhesion, growth, differentiation, and alignment. The existence of fibrous microstructure in connective and muscle tissues has attracted considerable interest in the realm of tissue engineering and triggered the interest of researchers to implement scaffolding techniques. A wide array of research efforts is ongoing in scaffolding technologies for achieving the real meat structure on the principality of biomedical research and to replace serum free CM production. Scaffolds made of animal-derived biomaterials are found efficient in replicating the extracellular matrix (ECM), thus focus should be paid to utilize animal byproducts for this purpose. Proper identification and utilization of plant-derived scaffolding biomaterial could be helpful to add diversified options in addition to animal derived sources and reduce in cost of CM production through scaffolds. Furthermore, techniques like electrospinning, modified electrospinning and 3D bioprinting should be focused on to create 3D porous scaffolds to mimic the ECM of the muscle tissue and form real meat-like structures. This review discusses recent advances in cutting edge scaffolding techniques and edible biomaterials related to structured CM production.

Effect of the pre-crosslinking of Ba2+ ions on wet spinning of agar fibers

Decreased coagulation bath concentration and difficult recovery are classical issues observed during the wet spinning of fibers. In this paper, a novel method was presented for preparing environment-friendly agar fibers using deionized water as the coagulation and stretch baths. The addition of Ba2+ into the spinning solution increased the crosslinking time and improved the performance of spinning solution. The results showed that the introduction of Ba2+ in the spinning solution increased the viscosity of the spinning solution. Particularly, when the concentration of BaCl2 in the spinning solution was 7 wt%, the viscosity increased to 39.29 Pa·s, which made the molecular chain arrangement of agar more compact and ordered and promoted the gelation transformation of the spinning solution, resulting in an increase in the gel temperature from 0.2 °C (Ba-0/agar) to 5.4 °C (Ba-7/agar). The spinning solution was more conducive to the formation of fibers in deionized water. In addition, the physical and chemical properties of agar fibers were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, tensile testing, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that the use of deionized water as the coagulation bath can improve the color of fiber and solve the problem of fiber adhesion, whereas the mechanical strength of agar fibers with pre-cross-linking metal ions was also improved. For example, the breaking strength of Ba-7/agar/DIW was 0.73 cN/dtex while the breaking strength of Ba-0/agar/DIW was only 0.62 cN/dtex.