Abstract
Porous biodegradable scaffolds provide a physical substrate for cells allowing them to attach, proliferate and guide the formation of new tissues. A variety of techniques have been developed to fabricate tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds, among them the most relevant is the thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS). This technique has been widely used in recent years to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) TE scaffolds. Low production cost, simple experimental procedure and easy processability together with the capability to produce highly porous scaffolds with controllable architecture justify the popularity of TIPS. This paper provides a general overview of the TIPS methodology applied for the preparation of 3D porous TE scaffolds. The recent advances in the fabrication of porous scaffolds through this technique, in terms of technology and material selection, have been reviewed. In addition, how properties can be effectively modified to serve as ideal substrates for specific target cells has been specifically addressed. Additionally, examples are offered with respect to changes of TIPS procedure parameters, the combination of TIPS with other techniques and innovations in polymer or filler selection.
Highlights
Tissue engineering (TE) is a very tested field of biotechnology that has been developed for over two decades [1,2]
After solvent removal by extraction, evaporation or sublimation, the polymerrich phase is converted into the skeleton of a porous scaffold, while the removed solvent is responsible of the final porosity [55,56]
The thermally-induced phase separation (TIPS) technique is based on decreasing the temperature of a homogenous polymer solution or a homogeneous multicomponent system which has been formed at high temperature
Summary
Tissue engineering (TE) is a very tested field of biotechnology that has been developed for over two decades [1,2]. Apart from the usage of natural/synthetic polymeric scaffolds in various fields of tissue engineering, a promising strategy is the design and fabrication of binary hybrid/composite matrices consisting of biodegradable polymers and inorganic fillers like hydroxyapatite (HA) [28,29,30,31,32,33] and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) [1,34,35]. These are ideal for regeneration of bone-like tissues. Sci. 2021, 22, 3504 produced through different mechanisms of phase separation and under specific fabrication conditions
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