Scaffold materials play an essential role in tissue engineering field due to its function of accommodate and guide cell proliferation. In this study, I investigated different types of crosslinked protein membranes that can be produced in microfluidic channels and a number of various types of PLGA electrospun composite nanofiber scaffold to examine their potentials as scaffold materials in tissue engineering. A simplified fabrication technique has been developed to produce a large surface area of crosslinked protein membranes to fulfill the purpose of cell culture experiments. Bovine serum albumin is used along with two acyl chloride crosslinkers, i.e. TCL and IDCL, respectively to accomplish the cross-linking. On the other hand, PLGA is dissolved in HFIP and enhanced with silk fibroin and carbon nanotubes to make composite electrospun materials. The morphology, physicochemical properties and biocompatibility of the membranes are studied. The biocompatibility of the membranes is investigated using cell proliferation of the PC12, ADSCs and neurons cultured on the membranes. Our results show that compared to crosslinked protein membranes, the electrospun materials are easier to prepare, less toxic and more suitable for mass production. Moreover, the electrospun materials are seen to have better biocompatibility in our cell culture study. Furthermore, the composite electrospun materials with high CNTs concentrations demonstrate positive effects on the proliferation of neurons.

Diffusive mass transport is fundamental for many scientific research areas including physics, chemistry, biology, pharmacy, medicine and geography. In tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, the diffusive mass transport property of artificial and natural biological materials is a key parameter for understanding 3D scaffolds towards designing vascular networks capable of mimicking natural tissues. The aim was to understand diffusion coefficient differences for biomedical materials of different geometrical shapes and matrix properties, including collagen gels and polymeric membranes. Theoretical work involved producing analytical expressions for diffusion, variously in a planar sheet, a cylinder and a sphere for different initial and boundary conditions. Dynamic amperometric current responses at recessed, membrane covered planar and hanging mercury drop electrodes were also studied. Experimentally, glucose and lactate needle enzyme electrodes were fabricated and an experimental rig was designed to measure analyte concentrations within gels. The analyte diffusion coefficient in a collagen gel was obtained by fitting the simulated to the experimental concentration profiles. Also, a membrane covered planar electrode system was developed to measure the diffusion coefficient of electrochemically active solute through various polymeric barriers. Here, a fit of the simulated to the experimental amperometric current transients was made. Conventionally, a drug release curve is used to characterise drug release, which depends on drug concentration and substrate geometric size and shape. A more intrinsic property, the effective diffusion coefficient, independent of drug concentration or substrate, was determined by fitting calculated drug release to experimental curves. Finally, solute diffusion across dual laminar flows in a microfluidic system was analysed and used to determine ammonia diffusion coefficient in aqueous solution. The key novelty of this work was the construction of a series of accurate but simple expressions for mass transport in various geometric matrices which enabled the determination of diffusion coefficients by a specific analytical expression obtained from Fick’s Laws and the best fit, avoiding extensive numerical computation such as finite element methods. For all the above, corresponding one point equations were also derived to give initial rapid estimates of diffusion coefficients.