Medical Textiles as Substrates for Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering (TE) and regenerative medicine, with the aim to replace, repair and remodel the damaged tissues and organs, has led to development of myriad biomimetic materials that possess biomechanical properties resembling those of native tissues. Some of the key points to generate a successful replacement for native tissues are selecting the appropriate cell types and incorporating them into biomimetic three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds or substrates. Different types of biomaterials, including degradable or nondegradable materials with various morphologies and structures, can be used as scaffolds to provide a hospitable and supporting environment for cell growth and tissue regeneration. Fibrous scaffolds have been extensively used in regenerative medicine applications. Specifically, bio medical textiles with fibrous structure have a long history in treatment, repair, and replacement of tissues. While some applications are as simple as bandages or sutures, others are more complex like repair of heart valves, vascular grafts, and engineered skeletal muscle tissue. The fibrous structures/textiles can be devel oped in a way that their shapes and sizes match the tissue's or organ's structure or mechanics while enabling cellular infiltration due to their highly porous struc ture. In this chapter, we briefly discuss the fibrous structure applications in TE and regenerative medicine. Then, we review the background of medical textiles and summarize the fabrication methods for fibers and fibrous scaffolds with different morphologies and structures used in various TE applications (e.g. musculoskel etal, eye, cardiac, and nerve tissues). At the end, we highlight the future of medical textiles in regenerative medicine applications.