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Over the years, significant progress has been made in developing cell culture platforms that mimic in vivo microenvironments and has greatly facilitated the construction of in vitro organ/tissue models that mimic in vivo physiology. While traditional cell culture platforms are limited to achieving biochemical microenvironments by adjusting culture medium components or functionalizing extracellular matrix (ECM) components on the matrix, advances in cell culture platforms have made it possible to achieve the biophysical (mechanical and structural) microenvironment of in vivo tissues. Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of the biophysical microenvironment in promoting cell behavior and function, which has greatly increased the need and interest in developing advanced cell culture platforms that achieve biochemical and biophysical microenvironments.
The main point of this paper
Importance of biomimetic materials:
Nano-, micro- or multi-scale biomimetic materials play a key role in mimicking biophysical microenvironments, especially in the development of cell culture platforms.
Characteristics of nanofibrous membranes (NFMs):
NFMs have attracted attention because of their structure similar to the extracellular matrix (ECM) in natural tissues.
NFMs have physiological stiffness (kPa to MPa), high porosity and microscale thickness, providing cells with a highly permeable microenvironment that promotes the diffusion of nutrients and gases.
Advances in NFM manufacturing technology:
In recent years, NFM manufacturing technology has made significant progress, enabling the realization of NFMs from microscopic to macroscopic structures.
Classification of NFMs:
NFMs are divided into three types in this paper: 2D NFMs, 2.5D NFMs (NFMs with microscopic structures) and 3D NFMs (NFMs that form macroscopic structures).
Electrospinning process:
The electrospinning process, which is a widely used method for preparing NFMs, is emphasized.
Post-processing techniques and integration:
Post-processing techniques to achieve additional structural/chemical properties on NFMs and methods to integrate NFMs with culture matrices such as microfluidic chips are discussed.
Application of NFMs in in vitro model development:
Application of NFMs with improved properties and functions in the development of various types of in vitro models is explored
Importance and properties of NFMs:
Nanofibrous membranes (NFMs) have attracted extensive attention in the study of in vitro organ/tissue models due to their extracellular matrix-mimicking structure and unique physical properties
These properties include high specific surface area, high porosity, and microscale thickness, which provide cells with a highly permeable microenvironment and promote the diffusion of nutrients and gases
Recent advances in NFMs manufacturing technology:
Recent advances in NFM manufacturing technology have greatly promoted the development of NFM-based cell culture platforms for the construction of physiological organ/tissue models
The review outlines the current state-of-the-art NFM manufacturing technologies, from electrospinning technology to various types of post-processing technologies for NFM-based cell culture platforms
Classification of NFMs:
NFMs can be divided into 2D NFM, 2.5D NFM (microstructured NFM), and 3D NFM (NFM itself forms a macrostructure) based on their structure
Electrospinning technology:
The electrospinning process is a versatile and most widely used method for preparing NFMs
This technology is able to produce NFMs with specific structures for different biomedical applications
Post-processing techniques and integration:
Post-processing techniques to achieve additional structural/chemical properties on NFMs, as well as methods to integrate NFMs with culture matrices (e.g., microfluidic chips) are discussed
Advantages of NFMs in building organ/tissue models:
NFM-based culture platforms have advantages in building organ/tissue models, especially in tissue barrier models, spheroids/organoids, and biomimetic organ/tissue construction
This review introduces various types of 2D, 2.5D, and 3D NFM fabrication techniques for producing biomimetic cell culture platforms for developing physiologically relevant in vitro organ/tissue models. The emergence of NFM-based cell culture platforms with various geometries has shown tremendous capabilities in constructing physiological in vitro organ/tissue models. Although these achievements have also raised great expectations for physiological and pathological studies and drug development, the practical application of NFMs as cell culture platforms remains challenging. Most importantly, NFMs are usually manufactured at laboratory scale without considering scalable production, thus limiting the high-throughput screening, consistency, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility of NFMs in the development of in vitro organ/tissue models.
