Polymer nanofibers for biomedical applications: advances by electrospinning

Abstract

The demand for novel biomaterials has been exponentially rising in the last years as well as the searching for new technologies able to produce more efficient products in both drug delivery systems and regenerative medicine. Objective: The technique that can pretty well encompass the needs for novel and high-end materials with a relatively low-cost and easy operation is the electrospinning of polymer solutions. Electrospinning usually produces ultrathin fibers that can be applied in a myriad of biomedical devices including sustained delivery systems for drugs, proteins, biomolecules, hormones, etc that can be applied in a broad spectrum of applications, from transdermal patches to cancer-related drugs. Electrospun fibers can be produced to mimic certain tissues of the human body, being an option to create new scaffolds for implants with several advantages. In this review, we aimed to encompass the use of electrospun fibers in the field of biomedical devices, more specifically in the use of electrospun nanofibers applications toward the production of drug delivery systems and scaffolds for tissue regeneration.