Enhanced cell growth using non-woven scaffolds of multilobal fibres

Multilobal fibres contain several grooves and have higher surface area than round fibres. Cell density can be enhanced when cultured on scaffolds manufactured with multilobal fibres. This study compared the cell growth of dermal fibroblasts and osteoblast-like SaOS2 cells on polymeric scaffolds produced from multilobal fibres to the conventional round-fibred scaffolds. Cells were cultured on round nylon 6,6, trilobal nylon 6,6, round polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and multilobal PET scaffolds for 14 days. There were more cells cultured on trilobal nylon 6,6 and PET multilobal scaffolds than their round counterparts. Preference to the type of multilobal scaffolds was cell dependent. Fibroblasts increased by 21.8 ± 1.9 fold to 6.3 × 10⁵ cells (p < 0.001) when cultured on trilobal nylon 6,6 scaffolds while SaOS2 cells exhibited a 16.7 ± 2.8 fold increase (2.9 × 10⁵ cells, p < 0.001) on the multilobal PET scaffolds after 14 days of culture. The ability of multilobal fibres to accommodate large quantities of cells presents an excellent alternative to round fibres as scaffolds for tissue engineering.