Biotechnol Lett (2018) 40:279–284
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-017-2466-3
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Preparation of electrospun core–sheath yarn with enhanced
bioproperties for biomedical materials
Boyu Li . Chengkun Liu . Fenglei Zhou . Xue Mao . Runjun Sun
Received: 5 September 2017 / Accepted: 26 October 2017 / Published online: 8 November 2017
Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature 2017
Abstract
Objectives To create a multifunctional medical
material that combines the advantages of both
nanofibers and macroyarns.
Results A novel electrospinning-based approach
was developed for creating polycaprolactone (PCL)
nanofiber covered yarns (PCL-NCYs) in which polyg-
lycolic acid multi-strand filaments (PGA-MFs) were
used as the core. BALB/3T3 (mouse embryonic
fibroblast cell line) cells were cultured on the PCL-
NCYs substrate and cell morphology and proliferation
were determined by methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT)
assay. Compared with PGA-MFs, PCL-NCYs had a
higher porosity and tensile strength of 88 ± 8% and
348 ± 16 MPa and in particular, the porosity was four
times higher. BALB/3T3 cells attached more easily
onto the nanofiber structure and proliferated along the
direction of nanofibers, indicating that PCL-NCYs can
achieve better cell differentiation and proliferation.
B. Li  C. Liu (&)  X. Mao  R. Sun
School of Textile and Materials, Xi’an Polytechnic
University, Xi’an 710048, China
e-mail: liuchengkun@xpu.edu.cn
C. Liu
College of Textiles, Donghua University,
Shanghai 201620, China
F. Zhou
Division of Informatics, Imaging and Data Sciences,
The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Conclusions PCL-NCYs can be created by combin-
ing electrospinning covering and textile twisting,
and have better mechanical property and higher
porosity, and can be used as a novel scaffold in tissue
engineering.
Keywords Biomedical materials  Core–sheath
structure  Electrospinning  Nanofibers  Mechanical
property  Porosity  Tissue scaffolds
Introduction
A wide range of medical materials have been devel-
oped via the combination nanotechnology with textile
techniques (Joseph et al. 2015). For instance, the
technology of electrospinning can provide new gen-
eration biomaterials to replace traditional medical
materials through fabrication of nanofibers with high
porosity and specific surface area (Mouthuy et al.
2015; Subbiah et al. 2005), which have been widely
used in tissue regeneration (Jiang et al. 2015), artificial
organs (Horst et al. 2013; Wu et al. 2017), drug
delivery (Sill and von Recum 2008), medical protec-
tion (Xue et al. 2015), wound healing (Tan et al. 2015),
and biological scaffolds (Townsend-Nicholson et al.
2006; Jayasinghe 2013).
Many recent efforts have been focused on electro-
spun nanofiber yarn. For instance, a dynamic liquid
fibre collector was used by Wu et al. (2012) for
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electrospinning a novel nanofiber yarn scaffold with
excellent surface properties and porous structures.
Mouthuy et al. (2015) fabricated continuous threads
to improve cell adhesion and proliferation by a new
electrospinning setup using a wire as the nanofiber
collector. A new electrospun core–sheath yarn was
produced by a claw collector as the controlled drug
release suture, which could circumvent variable load-
ing efficiency and release kinetics limits (Padmakumar
et al. 2016). Li et al. (2015) reported a dual spinneret
system to fabricate aligned nanofiber yarns, which were
used in nerve conduits injury. However, pure electro-
spun fibers or yarns are difficult to meet the require-
ments of mechanical property and post-processing for
some clinical applications, and lack of a mass or
continuous-preparation device for those materials.
In the present study, electrospun polycaprolactone
(PCL) nanofibers were deposited onto polyglycolic
acid multi-strand filaments (PGA-MFs) to prepare
PCL nanofiber covered yarns (PCL-NCYs) by using a
unique fibre collector. PCL-NCYs were characterized
in terms of mechanical property and porosity. The
biological performance as a tissue scaffold for BALB/
3T3 (mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line) cells was
assessed by methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay.
Materials and methods
Materials
PGA-MFs was purchased from Shandong Weigao
Group Medical Polymer Co., Ltd., China. Polycapro-
lactone (PCL, Mw = 80000, Sigma-Aldrich) was
dissolved at 10% (w/v) in dichloromethane/N,N-
dimethylformamide (3:2, v/v).
Fabrication of nanofiber covered yarn
The nanofiber covered yarn is shown in Fig. 1. PCL
solution was pushed at 0.8 ml/h by a syringe pump. A
winding roll and two driving gears ran at the same time
guiding the PGA-MFs to move and rotate. In this
electrospinning process, the deposited PCL nanofibers
were covered on the surface of PGA-MFs when it
passed over the aluminum plate. PCL-NCYs were
prepared at 20 ± 2 °C and relative humidity of
65 ± 5% and then kept in the environment for 12 h
to remove the organic solvent.
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Biotechnol Lett (2018) 40:279–284
Morphology observation
Morphology of samples was examined by a field
emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM, Quanta-
450-FEG, FEI, England) at an accelerating voltage of
10 kV. The images were evaluated using Smileview
software (JEOL) to calculate the fiber diameter.
Mechanical properties
For mechanical property tests, all samples with the
length of 15 cm were tested for stress and strain using
an electronic strength tester (5565, Instron, USA) with
the crosshead speed of 10 mm/min.
Porosity
Porosity of the samples was measured by the liquid
displacement method (Mandal and Kundu 2009).
Before tests, samples were placed in a vacuum
desiccator for drying 2 h and then put into a measuring
cylinder that was filled with a known volume (V1) of
ethanol. The total volume (V2) of ethanol and
infiltrated yarns were recorded. After infiltrated yarns
were taken out, volume (V3) of the measuring cylinder
with the left ethanol were recorded. The porosity (P)
of samples was calculated as follows:
V1  V3
Pð%Þ ¼  100% ð1Þ
V2  V3
Cellular culture and morphology
Samples were fixed at the bottom of a 24-well tissue
culture plate (TCP) and exposed to UV radiation for
3 h, and washed 3 times with PBS for 10 min each and
incubated in DEME containing 10% (v/v) fetal bovine
serum (FBS) for 24 h before cell seeding. BALB/3T3
cells were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10%
(v/v) FBS, 1% (w/v) penicillin/streptomycin at 37 °C,
5% CO2 and 95% humidity. After reaching 70%
confluency, the cells were digested with trypsin and
counted by a cell counter. BALB/3T3 cells were
further seeded onto samples in the 24-well plate at
1 9 104 cells/well. After 3 days of cell seeding, the
growth behavior of the cell was observed by a inverted
microscope and then cell-seeded samples were treated
by fixation and dewatering. Morphology of the cell-
seeded samples was examined by using FESEM.
Biotechnol Lett (2018) 40:279–284 281

Fig. 1 Schematic of the

electrospinning apparatus to
fabricate PCL-NCYs

Fig. 2 Surface morphology

of PCL-NCYs under
magnifications of 150
(a) and 5000 (b); (c) core–
sheath structure of PCL-
NCYs; (d) diameter
distribution of PCL
nanofibers on the surface of
PCL-NCYs

MTT assay to allow formazan formation. MTT was then replaced

by 400 ll dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The OD492
Cell proliferation on samples were determined by was read in a separate 96-well plate using 100 ll
using MTT assay. After 1, 3 and 5 days of culturing, aliquots.
cell-seeded samples were incubated in MTT solution

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Fig. 3 Effect of PCL

nanofibers on mechanical
properties (a) and porosity
(b) of PCL-NCYs

Fig. 4 Morphology of
BALB/3T3 cells on PGA-
MFs and PCL-NCYs after
3 days of cell culture. The
cell morphology around
PGA-MFs (a) and PCL-
NCYs (b) was observed
under inverted microscope;
FESEM images of BALB/
3T3 cells on PGA-MFs
(magnification: 500 (c) and
2000 (d)) and PCL-NCYs
(magnification: 500 (e) and
2000 (f))

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Fig. 5 MTT results of BALB/3T3 on PCL-NCYs, PGA-MFs
and TCP after 1, 3 and 5 days of cell seeding. *P \ 0.05
Statistical analysis
Results were expressed as means ± standard devia-
tions (SD). Statistical analysis was obtained by using
one-way ANOVA. Values of P \ 0.05 were consid-
ered statistically significant.
Results and discussion
Figure 2a, and b show that nanofibers on the surface of
PCL-NCYs have a large extent of alignment along a
certain direction due to the directional action of two
parallel aluminum flakes. Figure 2c illustrates PCL-
NCYs possess a clear core–sheath structure and a
smooth surface. Diameter of the surface nanofibers is
397 ± 48 nm (Fig. 2d) which can effectively simulate
the structure of the extracellular matrix (ECM) to
promote cells adhesion and growth (Li et al. 2002).
Stress–strain curve of PCL-NCYs (Fig. 3a) shows a
higher tensile strength (348 ± 16 MPa) compared
with PGA-MFs (319 ± 13 MPa). The reason might be
attributed to the alignment of PCL nanofibers along
the yarn, and when the yarn is stretched, the peripheral
PCL nanofibers are beneficial to the increase of
component force along the stretching direction and
friction force between fibers. Figure 3b shows that
porosity of PCL-NCYs with the value of 88 ± 8%
gains a more pronounced increase compared with that
for PGA-MFs of 22 ± 4%. As reported by Li et al.
(2002), a higher porosity was more advantageous for
cell metabolism. Surface properties of the biomaterials
283
in medical fields played a key role in cell-material
interaction, especially at the initial stage of cell culture
(Wu et al. 2014). To investigate the effect of surface
morphology on cell growth, BALB/3T3 cells were
cultured on PGA-MFs and PCL-NCYs respectively.
Figure 4a, and b show the growth behavior of cells
on plate of PGA-MFs and PCL-NCYs after 3 days of
cell culture, and it was found that cells number on the
surface of PCL-NCYs was more than that on PGA-
MFs. PCL-NCYs with covered nanofibers were found
to be more able to promote cells adhesion compared to
PGA-MFs, and extension length for cells on PCL-
NCYs (Fig. 4e, f) was longer than that on PGA-MFs
(Fig. 4c, d). This might be because PCL nanofibers
have a higher porosity and a larger specific surface
area. BALB/3T3 cells could easily grow into the
nanofiber structure and proliferate along the direction
of nanofibers, leading to the formation of attachment
points on the PCL-NCYs, which could effectively
simulate the ECM structure.
As shown in Fig. 5, higher difference for the value
of optical density between PCL-NCYs and PGA-MFs
at day 1 indicates that BALB/3T3 cells present a
higher proliferation rate on PCL-NCYs, which might
be due to the nano-surface offering more suitable sites
for cell attachment. Moreover, after 3 and 5 days cell
culture, BALB/3T3 cells on PCL-NCYs showed a
significantly higher proliferation rate than those on
PGA-MFs and TCP. This is probably because the
surface of PCL-NCYs is highly porous and similar to
the ECM structure so that BALB/3T3 cells can spread
and attach better on PCL-NCYs and migrate along the
biotopographic cues. Therefore, it is proved that cells
cultured on PCL-NCYs have a higher accelerated
proliferation rate (P \ 0.05) than that on PGA-MFs.
A novel device has been designed to apply electro-
spun PCL nanofibers onto PGA-MFs to prepare PCL-
NCYs, which not only have the biological properties
of nanofibers, but also has the mechanical properties of
the core yarn. The maximum strength of PCL-NCYs
after covering with PCL nanofibers was higher than
that of PGA-MFs. PCL-NCYs had a significantly
improved porosity and surface sites for cell attachment
compared to PGA-MFs. This new type of nanofiber
covered yarn has a potential to be used independently,
and also be processed into two dimensional and three
dimensional biomedical materials.
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Acknowledgements This work was supported by grants from
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51503168),
Shaanxi Innovation Talent Promotion Program-Project for
Youth New Star of Science and Technology (2017KJXX-23),
Special Funding for Postdoctoral Innovation Project in
Shandong Province (201504), Disciplinary Construction Fund
for Textile Science and Engineering of Xi’an Polytechnic
University (10709-0821), and Xi’an Polytechnic University
Innovation Fund for Graduate Students (CX201729).
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