Recent advances of electrospun nanofiber-enhanced hydrogel composite scaffolds in tissue engineering

Nanofiber-enhanced hydrogel composite scaffolds (NFHCSs) combine both of electrospinning strategy and hydrogel-forming process, which possess some advanced characteristics originated from nanofibrous materials like native extracellular matrix (ECM) fibril-mimicking morphology and structure, and high specific surface area and also have some advantageous properties of hydrogels like high hydrophilicity, and great water absorbing and retaining capacities. Many methods have been designed and developed for the generation of NFHCSs in the recent years. Moreover, lots of existing studies demonstrated that the outstanding and fantastic characteristics of NFHCSs have made them ideal biomaterial scaffolds, which were widely explored and investigated in the application fields of various tissue engineering. In this review, we firstly introduce the novel strategies employed in the generation of NFHCSs, and discuss their merits and demerits. Then, the advanced applications of NFHCSs in skin, cartilage, tendon, bone, neural, and vascular tissue engineering are presented. Noticeably, some innovative synergetic approaches by introducing bioactive ingredients and cell therapy into NFHCSs are highlighted. At the end of this review, the scientific and technical challenge, and future direction and prospect in this field are deeply and intensively discussed and summarized.