The Electrospinning Company Ltd. products

Electrospinning is an established method of producing nano- and micro-fibres from a wide variety of natural and synthetic polymers. A polymer solution is injected through a nozzle or needle which is charged to a high voltage. The applied voltage induces a charge on the surface of the liquid droplet and when this is sufficiently high, the hemispherical surface of the fluid elongates and a Taylor cone is established. On increasing the applied voltage further, a charged liquid jet is ejected from the Taylor cone and attracted to the earthed collector, which is positioned at a fixed distance from the needle. During this process the solvent evaporates from the polymer solution, leaving dry polymer fibres on the collector.  Electrospinning with a single Taylor cone is typically low throughput but new equipment, such as multi-nozzle injectors and needle-less spinnerets, and processes are facilitating industrial scale-up.

The goal of this study was to investigate whether a biocomposite electrospun scaffold has the ability to induce differentiation of hMSCs into osteogenic lineage without specific growth factors. This study was conducted by researchers at the University of Malaya. Three scaffolds were generated by The Electrospinning Company for this purpose: PLLA + collagen, PLLA + hydroxyapatite (HA) and PLLA + collagen/HA. The morphology, chemical composition, and surface roughness of the fibrous scaffolds were examined. Furthermore, cell attachment, distribution, morphology, mineralization, extracellular matrix protein localization, and gene expression of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) differentiated on the three types of fibrous were also analyzed.

Culture of retinal pigment epithelium cells on the Mimetix scaffold. The aim of this case study was to evaluate whether the Mimetix scaffold can mimic Bruch’s membrane and assess the attachment, proliferation and differentiation of human RPE cells (ARPE-19) cells within it as a treatment option for age-related macular degeneration. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness in the UK, causing vision loss as a result of permanent damage or death to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) or photoreceptor cells in the retina. The ability to replace and regenerate RPE cells on Bruch’s membrane could possibly lead to a number of therapeutic options to treat the cellular loss and dysfunction typical of AMD and other progressive retinopathies.

The Mimetix fibres are labelled with Rhodamine 6G. The thickness of Mimetix scaffold allows for having a 3D environment while maintaining a certain translucence, thus allowing for easy and robust imaging. This study has investigated the localisation depth of MCF7 breast cancer cells in the Mimetix scaffold after 4 days of culture (nuclei stained with TO-PRO-3, blue). The video below shows a Z-stack (slices through the scaffold from the top to the bottom at 2 μm steps), 4 days after seeding. At day 1 most cells are located with the top 1/3 of the scaffold, whereas they occupy the top 2/3 of the scaffold with few cells observed even deeper at day 4.

Images taken using a Nikon Eclispe C1 confocal microscope. HepG2 liver cells were grown for 21 days in the Mimetix scaffold. Cells are stained with DAPI and actin; fibres are electrospun together with Rhodamine 6G (a and b). Cancer cells form a 3D network inside the scaffold (c), use the fibres to support themselves (d) and populate the entire scaffold (e).

The advantages of electrospinning are the ability to tailor polymer, architecture and structure to create nanofibre and microfibre materials suitable for different therapeutic applications.

The Electrospinning Company is developing the Symatix^® membrane which is an innovative synthetic amniotic membrane substitute. The membrane is created using electrospinning technology and is designed to overcome the limitation of the Human Amniotic Membrane (HAM).