Rolled tubular scaffolds with aligned nanofibers and their mechanical properties

In this paper, a novel tubular scaffold was constructed by electrospinning technique and rolling method. Firstly, a high speed rotation drum was used to collect aligned poly (lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers. Secondly, the membrane was cut and rolled into tube. Finally, a randomly oriented nanofibers layer was electrospun onto the rolled tube to envelope the end of rolled membrane and increase the mechanical properties. The morphology and alignment of nanofibers was observed and the mechanical properties were evaluated. The results showed that desirable alignment could be obtained by adjusting rotation speed. Along the fiber direction, the tensile stress of aligned PLA nanofibers membrane reached 49.32 +/- 14.83 MPa and the elongation was17.71% +/- 0.06%. The suture strength was more than adequate for suturing during implantation (2.36 +/- 0.80 N/needle). This results derived from this study indicated that the construction technology was feasible and fundamentally verified the applicability of novelly designed scaffolds in tissue engineering.