Electrospun hydrogels composites for bone tissue engineering

Electrospinning is one of the foremost nanotechnology applications to fabricate bone tissue engineering scaffolds with sizes in the nanometre range. It is regarded as a versatile, inexpensive and relatively simple methodology with potential for mimicking the nano- architecture of bones. In this chapter, the fabrication of three types of nanocomposites based on the biocompatible electrospun hydrogels, namely:(i) electrospun nanofibre-reinforced hydrogels, (ii) electrospun hydrogels with biological electrospray cells and (iii) electrospun hydrogels with antimicrobial activity, exclusively for the field of bone tissue regeneration are presented. Hydrogels have been used widely in biomaterial applications, mainly due to their low interfacial tension, useful swelling properties and high lubricity.  In addition to their promising biocompatibility characteristics, certain hydrogels are desirable in the biomedical field due to their sensitivity to the physiological or biological environment where these are used.  There are many current applications for hydrogels including 8,000 different kinds of medical devices and 40,000 different pharmaceutical preparations.  The addition of electrospinning technology to hydrogels is an ideal combination as it facilitates the production of nanoscale hydrogel to allow the properties of the materials to be tailored.  Indeed, the remarkable tunability of nanofibres morphology and diameter can be performed through appropriate adjustment of different variables from processing parameters, polymer solution parameters and ambient parameters during electrospinning, in order to control scaffolds mechanical properties and consequently affect cell behaviour. Therefore, the incorporation of the electrospinning technology with hydrogels have allowed novel perspectives in the research of electrospun hydrogel composites for successful osteoconductive scaffolds with better cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation.