Nanoclay Reinforced Starch-Polycaprolactone Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Introduction: Bone tissue engineering is one of the important areas in the field of tissue engineering. Scaffolds should have adequate mechanical properties for proper tissue regeneration and for bearing the weight of the regenerating tissues. Many studies have been done for improving scaffolds mechanical properties. Objective: this study aimed to make and characterize nonoclay reinforced starch-polycaprolactone scaffolds. Material and Methods: Scaffolds based on starch/polycaprolactone blend containing montmorillonite nanoclays were prepared by solvent casting-salt leaching technique. The nanoclays were introduced to improve the mechanical properties of the scaffold. Results: The characteristics of scaffolds were analysis by FTIR, SEM, contact angel, MTT assay and compressive strength tests. FTIR showed some hydrogen bonds between starch and polycaprolactone in scaffolds. In addition, the prepared samples exhibited porosity greater than 70%. The compressive mechanical test showed the range of 3.3 to 5.8 MPa for the compressive elastic modulus of the scaffolds. The contact angle experiments exhibited that incorporation of nanoclays improved the hydrophilicity of SPCL from 136 to 122 degree. Conclusion: FTIR showed that the nanoclays was successfully incorporated into the starch/polycaprolactone blend based scaffolds. Nanoclays influenced the microstructure of starch/polycaprolactone scaffolds. The MTT assay also indicated that the nanoclays did not a negative effect on the viability of osteoblast cells in scaffolds. The porosity of the scaffolds is appropriate for tissue engineering applications. Therefore, the starch/polycaprolactone -nanoclay scaffolds appear to satisfy some of the essential requirements of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.