Nanofabrication of Electrospun Fibers for Controlled Release of Retinoic Acid

Abstract

The process of electrospinning has received a remarkable amount of attention as this technique can be used to encap-sulate bioactive agents into polymer nanofibers while varying topographies. Encapsulation of bioactive agents inside elec-trospun nanofibers can be carried out by emulsion electro-spinning where the specific agent is dissolved into the desired polymer solution. In this study, we demonstrate that retinoic acid (RA), a small molecule that regulates neural develop-ment, could be successfully encapsulated into electrospun poly (epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) nanofibers at different doses while varying fiber topography. Controlled release of RA was evaluated over a month from both randomly oriented and aligned PCL scaffolds. Finally, we show that these scaffolds support and direct murine CE3 embryonic stem cell (ESCs) proliferation and migration. Overall, this novel combination of RA releasing electrospun nanofibers and stem cell derived neural progenitors serves as a promising strategy for the re-pair of spinal cord injuries.