No abstract

Biodegradable polymers reinforced with an inorganic phase such as calcium phosphate glasses may be a promising approach to fulfil the challenging requirements presented by 3D porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. Scaffolds' success depends mainly on their biological behaviour. This work is aimed to the in vitro study of polylactic acid (PLA)/CaP glass 3D porous constructs for bone regeneration. The scaffolds were elaborated using two different techniques, namely solvent-casting and phase-separation. The effect of scaffolds' micro and macrostructure on the biological response of these scaffolds was assayed. Cell proliferation, differentiation and morphology within the scaffolds were studied. Furthermore, polymer/glass scaffolds were seeded under dynamic conditions in a custom-made perfusion bioreactor. Results indicate that the final architecture of the solvent-cast or phase separated scaffolds have a significant effect on cells' behaviour. Solvent-cast scaffolds seem to be the best candidates for bone tissue engineering. Besides, dynamic seeding yielded a higher seeding efficiency in comparison with the static method.

No abstract

The goal of this study was to characterise the surface properties of completely degradable composite, polylactic acid and calcium phosphate glass, scaffolds. The composite scaffolds are made by solvent casting or phase-separation, using chloroform and dioxane as a solvent respectively. The surface properties were measured on composite films which were made using the same procedure as for the three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds without the pore-creating step. The surface morphology, roughness, wettability and protein adsorption capacity of the films was measured before and after sterilisation with ethylene oxide. The results reveal the influence of solvent type, glass weight content and sterilisation on the wettability, surface energy and protein adsorption capacity of the materials. The addition of glass particles increase the hydrophylicity, roughness and protein adsorption capacity of the surface. This effect, however, depends on the extent of the coating of the glass particles by the polymer film, which is much higher for dioxane films than for chloroform films. This information can be used to interpret and understand the biological behaviour of the 3D scaffolds made of this composite materials.