engleski

Assembling an electrospun pcl cord for ligament repair using a semi-industrial braiding machine

Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair using synthetic materials still result in less-than- adequate clinical outcomes and is characterised by high failure rate, owing to their inadequate mechanical and biological properties (1). Consequently, there is a need to produce better solutions. While polycaprolactone (PCL) electrospun materials have showed potential for soft tissue repair, they have not yet been produced into the form of a braided cord that can be produced at large scale. PCL filaments used for braiding were produced with continuous electrospinning on a metal wire (2). The raw filaments were stretched 7-8 times the starting length, before being carefully assembled in a 9- filament bundles, which were used for braiding. The mechanical properties of the braided patch and individual filaments were measured by uniaxial tensile machine. Scaffold morphology was assessed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM images showed a biomimetic morphology of the aligned microfibres similar to the ACL microstructure. The braided PCL patch, produced with 9 filaments per carrier and using a total of 24 carriers (216 filaments overall) had tensile strengths comparable to market competitor FiberWire®. We have shown that continuous electrospun filaments made of PCL could be braided by means of a commercial machine. This is a noteworthy improvement in the field of utilitarian bioresorbable clinical materials, specifically for applications in soft tissue repair.

medical textiles ; electrospinning ;

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