Advancing Electrospun Nanofiber Scaffolds for Next-Generation Tissue Engineering: from Trend Analysis to Multifunctionalization and Hybrid Fabrication

Abstract

Tissue engineering is an emerging and integrated field for the repair of defective tissues, which benefits from the interdisciplinary development of biomaterial and engineering techniques. Electrospinning is a promising technique used for tissue engineering to fabricate fiber-based biomaterials that could mimic the extracellular matrix even at the nanometer level, but there has been no review to detect the trends and systematically summarize the application strategies about electrospinning in tissue engineering. This review initially used a bibliometric analysis to detect the trends of electrospinning in tissue engineering in the last two decades by evaluating distinctive aspects including publication years, countries, institutions, and keywords. Then the review presents the multi-hierarchical strategies to use electrospinning to fabricate scaffolds for tissue engineering, including biochemical functionalization, biophysical modification and cell incorporation. Moreover, the hybrid combinations of electrospinning with other scaffold fabrication techniques to fabricate composite scaffolds are summarized including textile, 3D printing, hydrogel, lyophilization and gas foaming, thus finely simulating the bionic 3D microenvironment or the complex/interfacial tissue structures. Finally, the review discusses the research prospects and ongoing challenges, aiming to promote further development and clinical transformation.