Nonwoven scaffolds for bone regeneration

Developing successful scaffolds requires clinicians to adopt a multidisciplinary approach in order to understand and stimulate the natural bone regeneration process. A variety of natural and synthetic biomaterials, including naturally extracted, chemically functionalised collagen and synthetic Poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL), can be manufactured into fibres, enabling the formation of nonwoven scaffolds. Many different nonwoven architectures and structural features can then be introduced, depending on the manufacturing parameters. This chapter introduces methods for producing scaffolds with appropriate pore sizes by means of electrospinning, and it outlines the opportunities that exist for other nonwoven manufacturing technologies in the development of biomimetic products.