Parametric study on the size and alignment of electrospun PLGA nanofibrous matrices

Electrospinning is a useful method for the fabrication of three-dimensional, micro- to nanoscale fibrous scaffolds. The architecture of electrospun matrices can modulate cell adhesion, migration and gene expression. In this study, we performed a parametric study to investigate the impact of electrospinning parameters on the size and orientation of electrospun Poly(D, L-lactic-co-glycolic) acid 85:15 fibers. The fiber diameter increased significantly with increased polymer concentration or decreased collecting distance. The voltage applied between the needle tip and the collector did not impact the average diameter of fibers; however, resulted in high variability in fiber size, as the standard deviation of fiber size increased by 3 times as the voltage increased from 10kV to 30kV. Aligned fibrous scaffolds were fabricated by collecting electrospun fibers on a rotating mandrel. Increasing mandrel rotational speed enhanced fiber alignment without significantly affecting fiber diameter. The standard deviation of the fiber angle decreased from 39° to 17° as the rotational speed increased from 14000 rpm to 37000 rpm.