The Design and Fabrication of Engineered Tubular Tissue Constructs Enabled by Electrohydrodynamic Fabrication Techniques: A Review

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic processes have emerged as promising methods for fabricating polymetric fiber-based artificial tubular tissues. Existing review articles focus on the biological applications and processing materials associated with electrohydrodynamic processes in artificial tubular constructs, while overlooking the design and fabrication of these constructs. To address this gap, this review article emphasizes the design and fabrication of tubular tissue constructs enabled by employing electrohydrodynamic processes. This article begins by presenting an overview of two electrohydrodynamic processes: solution electrospinning (SE) and melt electrowriting (MEW). It then delves into the control of the fiber diameter enabled by SE and MEW, offering insights into the manipulation of processing parameters to achieve desired fiber diameters. Additionally, the review highlights cutting-edge strategies for electrohydrodynamic processes to create tubular structures with customized microarchitectures. This includes fiber alignment control for SE and pore morphology design for MEW. Moreover, the review covers the creation of customized macroscale tubular geometries through collector geometry design. Lastly, a comprehensive survey is presented for designing multiphasic tubular structures specifically for electrohydrodynamic techniques or in tandem with other techniques. The objective of this review is to offer a thorough understanding of the design considerations and potential applications of tubular structures fabricated by electrohydrodynamic processes.