Fabrication of sub-10-micron tubular structure of polycaprolactone by core-sheath electrospinning for potential tissue engineering applications

Vascularization for tissue-engineered organoids has been challenging over the past decades. With extensive efforts focused on the fabrication of artery and vein mimicries, few have resolved the issue of fabricating micron-size capillary mimicries. In this paper, polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) were dissolved in different types of solvents and the core-sheath electrospinning was applied to fabricate sub-10-microtubes. The microscale tubular structures can be obtained by dissolving the core substances in Deionized water (DI water). During the experiment, different parameters were investigated to find out the factor of microtube diameter. The results showed that electric field strength, spinning distance, pump rate, and the ratio of internal to external flow rate of the needle all had significant effects on the diameter of the microtubes. This study provided a research reference for the effects of electrospinning parameters on microtube diameters, which paved the way for future capillary tissue engineering applications.