Maria Alexaki

Visiting student (University of Crete, Greece)

Fibrous structures for cardiac tissue engineering

 

Supervisor: Lena Vogt and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Myocardial infarction is one of the main causes of death associated with cardiovascular diseases. Implanting a tissue-engineered myocardium into the diseased heart area seems to be a promising alternative for a heart transplantation. Scaffolds made of electrospun nanofibers have been actively explored for myocardial tissue regeneration [1]. The aim of the present project is to fabricate fibrous electrospun poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) mats and polymer-modified PCL mats with the use of benign solvents, like acetic acid and formic acid. The fiber mats will be investigated regarding their morphological, chemical, and mechanical properties.

[1] L. Vogt et al., Poly(ε-caprolactone)/poly(glycerol sebacate) electrospun scaffolds for cardiac tissue engineering using benign solvents, Mater. Sci. Eng. C 103 (2019) 109712.