ABSTRACT
Additive manufacturing (AM) and electrospinning are two separate technologies that have revolutionised the area of tissue engineering. AM can produce a three-dimensional, porous scaffold with highly specified dimensions and characteristics. It provides precise control over the scaffold architecture which is manufactured using biocompatible and bioabsorbable materials; however, the filament resolution is very small. Further, the fabricated scaffold surfaces are too smooth and do not support cell adhesion. Electrospinning, on the other hand, is based on the use of electrical forces to produce fibres with sizes ranging from micro- to nanometers. The issue of chaotic filament deposition and charge accumulation on deposited fibres makes it difficult to fabricate a reproducible 3D scaffold using this technique. Fabricated nanofibres are very closely placed and lack the required porosity for cell migration and proliferation. Further use of organic solvents, particularly in solution electrospinning, not only raises environmental concerns but also makes the fabricated structures unsuitable for cell growth. Technical concerns with both, otherwise promising techniques, have encouraged researchers to look for avenues where the merits of both can be combined to design and fabricate 3D scaffolds which can better mimic the natural tissue environment. In recent years, research in this direction has focused on two separate domains. Under the first domain, electrospun nanofibres are initially fabricated and are used either directly as bio-ink for AM technique or are placed in between 3D-printed layers to include nano-structures in scaffold architecture for better cell adhesion and growth. The second domain majorly promotes the melt electrospinning technique for directly printing 3D scaffolds of desired porosity and dimensions. The current chapter highlights in detail the issues faced by both AM and electrospinning techniques and the recent developments in both the domains of research involving amalgamation.
