Surfactant tuning of hydrophilicity of porous degradable copolymer scaffolds promotes cellular proliferation and enhances bone formation.

Abstract

Poly(l-lactide-co-ɛ-caprolactone) (poly(LLA-co-CL)) has been blended with Tween 80 to tune the material properties and optimize cell-material interactions. Accordingly, the aims of this study were fourfold: to evaluate the effect of low concentrations of Tween 80 on the surface microstructure of 3D poly(LLA-co-CL) porous scaffolds: to determine the effect of different concentrations of Tween 80 on proliferation of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) in vitro under dynamic cell culture at 7 and 21 days; to assess the influence of Tween 80 on the degradation rate of poly(LLA-co-CL) at 7 and 21 days; and in a subcutaneous rat model, to evaluate the effect on bone formation of porous scaffolds modified with 3% Tween 80 at 2 and 8 weeks. Blending 3% (w/w) Tween 80 with poly(LLA-co-CL) improves the surface wettability (p < 0.001). Poly(LLA-co-CL)/3% Tween 80 shows significantly increased cellular proliferation at days 7 and 21 (p < 0.001). Moreover, the presence of Tween 80 facilitates the degradation of poly(LLA-co-CL). Two weeks post-implantation, the poly(LLA-co-CL)/3% Tween 80 scaffolds exhibit significant mRNA expression of Runx2 (p = 0.004). After 8 weeks, poly(LLA-co-CL)/3% Tween 80 scaffolds show significantly increased de novo bone formation, demonstrated by μ-CT (p = 0.0133) and confirmed histologically. It can be concluded that blending 3% (w/w) Tween 80 with poly (LLA-co-CL) improves the hydrophilicity and osteogenic potential of the scaffolds. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2049-2059, 2016.