| Abstract Scope |
Electrospinning, like many materials processes, consists of a large number of controllable factors. Through careful monitoring, microstructures consisting of highly aligned polymer nanofibers can be created. Utilizing this, a culture system encouraging cell migration along parallel nanofibers has been created. NanoFiber Solutions (NFS) LLC was formed in 2009 to manufacture and market multi-well cell culture plates containing such highly aligned nanofiber. Historically, cell culture has been performed on flat tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) because it is cheap and optically transparent. However, living organisms are made up of an extracellular matrix presenting specific physical structures and mechanical support to cells. Not surprisingly, drugs developed using TCPS as an in vitro substrate experience>80% clinical failure. In contrast, aligned nanofiber deliberately recapitulates the microtopography of white matter in the brain. An example of the advantages such nanofibers confer is that brain cancer cells show outward migration that can be inhibited by anti-migratory drugs. |