Study on Dual Pore Network Polylactic Acid Scaffolds for Growth of MCF7 Human Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

The ability to fabricate dual pore tissue scaffolds remains a challenge with respect to material selection and control over geometry. Herein, a novel method combining additive manufacturing and solid‐state foaming to fabricate dual porous tissue scaffolds is presented. Structures with designed architectures are 3D printed followed by solid‐state foaming resulting in macro‐ and micropores, respectively. The advantage of this approach is its applicability to a wide range of materials with flexibility to control the pore sizes during the design stage and foaming process, respectively. The obtained scaffolds have macro‐ and micropore sizes of 200 and 25 μm, respectively, with a porosity of 71%. The scaffolds are seeded and cultured with MCF7 breast cancer cells to study cell adhesion and growth followed by the efficacy of oleuropein treatment. The results show that the scaffold is able to support attachment, proliferation, and viability of the cells. In addition, the scaffolds do not elicit any toxicity and the MCF7 cells are equally susceptible to the oleuropein treatment when grown on the scaffolds. In summary, a scalable, controllable, and repeatable process for the fabrication of dual pore tissue scaffolds is presented, which can aid in the development of bioartificial organs.