The effect of various denier capillary channel polymer fibers on the alignment of NHDF cells and type I collagen

Abstract If tissue engineers are to successfully repair and regenerate native tendons and ligaments, it will be essential to implement contact guidance to induce cellular and type I collagen alignment to replicate the native structure. Capillary channel polymer (CC‐P) fibers fabricated by melt‐extrusion have aligned micrometer scale surface channels that may serve the goal of achieving biomimetic, physical templates for ligament growth and regeneration. Previous work characterizing the behavior of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF), on the 19 denier per filament (dpf) CC‐P fibers, demonstrated a need for improved cellular and type I collagen alignment. Therefore, 5 and 9 dpf CC‐P fibers were manufactured to determine whether their channel dimensions would achieve greater alignment. A 29 dpf CC‐P fiber was also examined to determine whether cellular guidance could still be achieved within the larger dimensions of the fiber's channels. The 9 dpf CC‐P fiber appeared to approach the topographical constraints necessary to induce the cellular and type I collagen architecture that most closely mirrored that of native ACL tissue. This work demonstrated that the novel cross‐section of the CC‐P fiber geometry could approach the necessary surface topography to align NHDF cells along the longitudinal axis of each fiber. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2010.