Electrospun random/aligned hybrid nanofiber mat for development of multi-layered cardiac muscle patch

To deal with the serious cardiovascular disease, there have been enormous studies to regenerate damaged cardiac muscle, which lacks of regenerative capability. The electrospun aligned nanofibers presented remarkable results on the cardiac tissue engineering. However, the weak mechanical properties of aligned nanofibers hampers the utilization on cardiac patch application. In this work, the hybridization of random and aligned nanofiber facilitated the utilization of aligned nanofibers on cardiac muscle patch. By employing electrolyte solution as a collector in electrospinning set-up, the free-standing random/aligned hybrid nanofiber mats could be successfully fabricated. The presence of random nanofibers provided mechanical supports to be handled and sutured, and the aligned nanofibers enabled the cellular alignment of cardiomyocytes and the construction of 3D anisotropic structure by stacking the hybrid nanofiber mats.