![]() ![]() have confirmed that ordered collagen fibrils and fibers shown to be denser, thicker, and having a higher mechanical strength than that of randomly oriented constituents 17. The human cornea with a thickness of about 500 µm is composed of the stroma with its keratocytes and aligned collagen fibers 16. Natural materials, collagen which has excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability have been extensively utilized for the manufacturing of corneal scaffold 15. Because of the advantageous properties of PCL, it has been researched in a number of studies involving mixtures with various other polymers. Among these electrospun fibers, polycaprolactone (PCL) is thermoplastic polyester with hydrophobic and semi-crystalline properties, which has been approved by the FDA for human medical applications 13, 14. Therefore, functionalized electrospun fibers with improved properties need to be fabricated in combination with synthetic polymers. While native polymers show better cell attachment and compatibility, they have poor mechanical properties. In the field of materials science, various applicable biomaterials have been identified, ranging from synthetic polymers to natural polymers, which are highly soluble, inexpensive, easy to process, and biocompatible. Various polymeric materials have attracted interest as an alternative to this biological amniotic membrane due to their ability to meet specific needs while being able to be mass produced. However, since it is difficult to obtain a human amniotic membrane (hAM) for therapeutic use, attention has been paid to developing an alternative carrier having the immune-privileged, anti-inflammatory, and growth-promoting properties of amniotic membrane for the ocular surface reconstruction. A typical treatment for injured corneal tissue is an implantation of a patch of amniotic membrane in which the cornea cells or stem cells are cultured 12. In particular, biomaterials for corneal tissue engineering must demonstrate several important functions for their potential utility in vivo, including transparency, biocompatibility and slow biodegradability 8, 9, 10, 11. Polymer solutions or polymers are forced through an electric field which then elongates the polymer droplet, resulting in the formation of uniform fibers with nano to micrometer-scale diameters. Electrospinning has played an important role in the development of nanofibrous scaffolds for clinical use such as in tissue engineering. Supports such as a nerve conduit, an eardrum, and a cornea have been constructed by surface patterning using electrospinning to induce cell alignment 6, 7. Since the ECM plays an important role in tissues and determines the survival or functional maintenance of cells, studies have been carried out to imitate the cytoplasmic matrix 4, 5. The ideal scaffold mimics the ECM structure of the target primary tissue of the target tissue 3. A scaffold mimicking an extra cellular matrix (ECM) designed by tissue engineering is used for wound sites 1, 2. Recently, in the area of tissue engineering, research has focused on developing scaffolds that can repair or replace the functions of damaged tissues or organs. In summary, our fabricated 3D electrospun scaffold is expected to be suitable for the treatment of injuries of ocular tissues owing to the hemispherical shape and radially aligned nanofibers which can guide the direction of the main collagen and cellular actin filament in the extracellular matrix. A 3D hemispherical transparent scaffold with radially aligned nanofibers was successfully fabricated with the designed peg-top collector. A designed peg-top shaped collector, a hemispherical nonconductive device with a metal pin in the center and copper wire forming a circle around at the edge was attached to a conventional conductive collector. We proposed a novel electrospinning method using a single nonconductive hemispherical device and a metal pin. However, most conventional electrospinning equipment is only capable of fabricating a two-dimensional (2D) structured fibrous scaffold and no report is available on a 3D electrospinning method to fabricate a hemispherical scaffold to mimic the native properties of the cornea, including microscopic to macroscopic morphology and transparency. Human organs and tissue have three-dimensional (3D) morphologies for example, the morphology of the eye is a spherical shape. Tissue engineering has significantly contributed to the development of optimal treatments for individual injury sites based on their unique functional and histologic properties. ![]()
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