Biomimetic and bioactive nanofi brous scaffolds from electrospun composite nanofi bers

Electrospinning is an enabling technology that can architecturally (in terms of geometry, morphology or topography) and biochemically fabricate engineered cellular scaffolds that mimic the native extracellular matrix (ECM). This is especially important and forms one of the essential paradigms in the area of tissue engineering. While biomimesis of the physical dimensions of native ECM's major constituents (eg, collagen) is no longer a fabrication-related challenge in tissue engineering research, conveying bioactivity to electrospun nanofi brous structures will determine the effi ciency of utilizing electrospun nanofi bers for regenerating biologically functional tissues. This can certainly be achieved through developing composite nanofi bers. This article gives a brief overview on the current development and application status of employing electrospun composite nanofi bers for constructing biomimetic and bioactive tissue scaffolds. Considering that composites consist of at least two material components and phases, this review details three different confi gurations of nanofi brous composite structures by using hybridizing basic binary material systems as example. These are components blended composite nanofi ber, core-shell structured composite nanofi ber, and nanofi brous mingled structure.