Multicompartmental Microfibre Scaffolds

Because the local microstructure plays a pivotal role for many biological functions, a wide range of methods have been developed to design precisely engineered substrates for both fundamental biological studies and biotechnological applications. However, these techniques have been by-and-large limited to flat surfaces. Herein, we report three-dimensional fibre scaffolds with precisely engineered, micrometre-scale patterns for cellular contact guidance. In these biodegradable microfibre scaffolds, each fibre is comprised of several distinguishable compartments. To demonstrate the versatility of electrohydrodynamic co-spinning, multicompartmental microfibres with two to seven compartments have been prepared, where individual compartments have distinct chemical compositions or are selectively surface-modified. Moreover, orientation, size, and arrangement of the fibre compartments have been controlled in a highly predictable fashion. When multicompartmental fibre scaffolds are modified via spatially controlled peptide immobilization, a unique type of scaffold is obtained, which exhibits highly selective cell guidance (p≤ 0.05) at spatial pattern resolutions (<10 μm) that, so far, have been exclusively reserved for flat substrates. Microstructured fibre scaffolds may have utility for a range of biotechnological applications including tissue engineering or cell-based assays.