Another way to prepare high-strength helical fibers

How to effectively avoid tissue adhesion, promote wound healing, and prevent the formation of incisional hernias in large wound operations? A few days ago, the research group of Professor Chen Su of the State Key Laboratory of Materials Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, developed a new microfluidic spinning technology based on the principle of two-solvent phase transfer.
, which provides a method for exploring and solving the above problems
.
Recently, the research results were published in the German Journal of Applied Chemistry
.

"Microfluidic spinning technology has great application potential in the fields of tissue engineering, artificial skin and biomedicine due to its high heat transfer mass efficiency and precise and controllable fiber structure
.
" Dr.
Liu Jidong, the first author of the paper, said, Fluidics technology can construct chemically cross-linked helical micro-nano fibers, but currently the raw materials of helical fibers are concentrated on polymers such as sodium alginate, chitosan or dextran.
development and application
.

"The microfluidic spinning technology based on the principle of dual-solvent phase transfer is the first to propose a broad-spectrum method for preparing high-strength helical fibers
.
" Chen Su introduced
.

The study found that by designing the inner diameter of the inner phase outlet of the microfluidic chip and the tilt angle of the chip, the precise control of the radius, pitch and amplitude of the helical fiber can be achieved
.

"After the physicochemical phase inversion process, stretchable, flexible and biocompatible helical microfibers can be effectively fabricated, with biaxial tensile strengths exceeding 14MPa, which is about 6 times that of the same type of electrospun fibers
.
" Chen Su said
.

"Compared with the traditional straight fiber membrane, the contact area between the spiral fiber membrane and the internal organs is smaller, which is 4% of the former
.
" Chen Su said, for example, the spiral shape makes the artificial abdominal wall biaxially stretchable, and its mechanical properties and elasticity are closer to human tissue
.

"The spiral fiber membrane has strong bidirectional stretch elasticity and strong bearing pressure, which can 'hold' the organs, prevent the internal organs from 'leaking', avoid the formation of incisional hernias, and also accelerate healing
.
" Liu Jidong said that traditional medical polypropylene mesh The strength of the hydrogel dressing is low, easy to form incisional hernia, and strong rejection, and there are risks of postoperative tissue adhesion and inflammation
.
However, the helical fibers constructed by the microfluidic spinning technology developed now, woven into artificial skin, the contact surface of the dressing is smaller, the skin tissue is less likely to adhere, and the healing effect is better
.

According to Chen Su, this method can be widely used in the preparation of polycaprolactone, polyvinyl butyral, polysulfone, polyethersulfone and other polymers
.