Suspension Electrospinning of Decellularized Extracellular Matrix

Decellularized extracellular matrices (dECM) have strong regenerative potential as tissue engineering scaffolds; however, current clinical options for dECM are limited to freeze-drying its native form into sheets. Electrospinning is a versatile scaffold fabrication technique that allows control of macro- and microarchitecture. It remains challenging to electrospin dECM; which has led researchers to either blend it with synthetic materials or use enzymatic digestion to fully solubilize the dECM. Both strategies reduce the innate bioactivity of dECM and limit its regenerative potential. Herein, we developed a new suspension electrospinning method to fabricate a pure dECM scaffold that retains its innate bioactivity. Systematic investigation of suspension parameters was used to identify critical rheological properties required to instill "spinnability," including homogenization, concentration, and particle size. Homogenization enhanced particle interaction to impart the requisite elastic behavior to withstand electrostatic drawing without breaking. A direct correlation between concentration and viscosity was observed that altered fiber morphology; whereas, particle size had minimal impact on suspension properties and fiber morphology. The versatility of this new method was demonstrated by electrospinning dECM with three common decellularization techniques (Abraham, Badylak, Luo) and tissue origins (intestinal submucosa, heart, skin). Bioactivity retention after electrospinning was confirmed using cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and macrophage assays. Collectively, these findings provide a framework for researchers to electrospin dECM for diverse tissue engineering applications. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=78 SRC="FIGDIR/small/577473v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (34K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f6ff3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17efb2dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19c5b9dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@42a13e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG