Nanofiber Assembly by Rotary Jet-Spinning

TLDR

Electrospinning is constrained by high voltage requirements and low throughput. The study introduces a simple method to fabricate aligned 3‑D nanofiber structures using high‑speed rotating polymer jets. Rotary jet‑spinning controls fiber morphology, diameter, and porosity by adjusting nozzle geometry, rotation speed, and polymer solution properties. The technique produced anisotropic biodegradable fiber arrays that guided neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes to align, form beating multicellular tissue resembling heart muscle, and offers a promising alternative for creating uniaxially aligned nanofibers from polymers unsuitable for electrospinning.

Abstract

High-voltage electrical fields and low production rate limit electrospinning, the electrical charging of polymer liquids, as a means of nanofiber fabrication. Here, we show a facile method of fabrication of aligned three-dimensional nanofiber structures by utilizing high-speed, rotating polymer solution jets to extrude fibers. Termed rotary jet-spinning, fiber morphology, diameter, and web porosity can be controlled by varying nozzle geometry, rotation speed, and polymer solution properties. We demonstrate the utility of this technique for tissue engineering by building anisotropic arrays of biodegradable polymer fibers and seeding the constructs with neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes. The myocytes used the aligned fibers to orient their contractile cytoskeleton and to self-organize into a beating, multicellular tissue that mimics the laminar, anisotropic architecture of the heart muscle. This technique may prove advantageous for building uniaxially aligned nanofiber structures for polymers which are not amenable to fabrication by electrospinning.