Abstract
This study applied poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL), a biomedical ceramic powder as an additive (nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) or β-tricalcium diphosphate (β-TCP)), and sodium chloride (NaCl) and ammonium bicarbonate ((NH4)HCO3) as porogens; these stuffs were used as scaffold materials. An improved solvent-casting/particulate-leaching method was utilized to fabricate 3D porous scaffolds. In this study we examined the physical properties (elastic modulus, porosity, and contact angle) and degradation properties (weight loss and pH value) of the 3D porous scaffolds. Both nHA and β-TCP improved the mechanical properties (elastic modulus) of the 3D porous scaffolds. The elastic modulus (0.15~1.865 GPa) of the various composite scaffolds matched that of human cancellous bone (0.1~4.5 GPa). Osteoblast-like (MG63) cells were cultured, a microculture tetrazolium test (MTT) was conducted and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity of the 3D porous scaffolds was determined. Experimental results indicated that both nHA and β-TCP powder improved the hydrophilic properties of the scaffolds. The degradation rate of the scaffolds was accelerated by adding nHA or β-TCP. The MTT and ALP activity tests indicated that the scaffolds with a high ratio of nHA or β-TCP had excellent properties of in vitro biocompatibility (cell attachment and proliferation).
Highlights
Tissue engineering techniques used in bone reconstruction and regeneration often require a temporary porous scaffold, which modulates the growth of cells migrating from surrounding tissue or of cells seeded inside the porous structure of the scaffold
Porous PCL/nHA composite scaffolds were fabricated by a modified melt-molding/leaching technique using a combination of salt particulate and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as co-porogens
The reason was that those NPs were smaller than the pores, so they filled in the pores of the scaffold caused by Van der Waals forces
Summary
Tissue engineering techniques used in bone reconstruction and regeneration often require a temporary porous scaffold, which modulates the growth of cells migrating from surrounding tissue or of cells seeded inside the porous structure of the scaffold. A layer-by-layer technique was used to fabricate PCL/chitosan (CS) scaffolds, with salt used as the porogen [4] Another technique used NaCl to improve pore interconnectivity in PCL/HA composite scaffolds. The NIPS-based 3D plotting technique is useful in producing porous PCL/HA composite scaffolds with a controlled macro/micro-porous structure, high mechanical properties, and good bioactivity. Porous PCL/nHA composite scaffolds were fabricated by a modified melt-molding/leaching technique using a combination of salt particulate and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as co-porogens This scaffold prepared from NaCl/PEG presented many macropores with interconnectivity and showed high strength and good bioactivity [29]. Porous scaffolds were fabricated by an improved solvent-casting/particulate-leaching method using PCL (440744, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) as the scaffold material. The porosity of a scaffold immersed in a bottle full of ethanol was determined by Scaffold
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