Degradation and Characterisation of Electrospun Polycaprolactone (PCL) and Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) Scaffolds for Vascular Tissue Engineering

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the characteristics and the effects of degradation on the structural properties of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-and polycaprolactone (PCL)-based nanofibrous scaffolds. Six scaffolds were prepared by electrospinning, three with PCL 15% (w/v) and three with PLGA 10% (w/v), with electrospinning processing times of 30, 60 and 90 min. Both types of scaffolds displayed more robust mechanical properties with increased spinning times. The tensile strength of both scaffolds with 90-min electrospun membranes did not show a significant difference in their strengths, as the PCL and PLGA scaffolds measured at 1.492 MPa ± 0.378 SD and 1.764 MPa ± 0.7982 SD, respectively. All membranes were shown to be hydrophobic under a wettability test. A degradation behaviour study was performed by immersing all scaffolds in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution at room temperature for 12 weeks and for 4 weeks at 37 °C. The effects of degradation were monitored by taking each sample out of the PBS solution every week, and the structural changes were investigated under a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The PCL and PLGA scaffolds showed excellent fibre structure with adequate degradation, and the fibre diameter, measured over time, showed slight increase in size. Therefore, as an example of fibre water intake and progressive degradation, the scaffold’s percentage weight loss increased each week, further supporting the porous membrane’s degradability. The pore size and the porosity percentage of all scaffolds decreased substantially over the degradation period. The conclusion drawn from this experiment is that PCL and PLGA hold great promise for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.

Three-Dimensional Cartilage Regeneration Using Engineered Cartilage Gel With a 3D-Printed Polycaprolactone Framework

“…In vitro results further confirmed that the M1 polarization of macrophages activated by the PCL framework was significantly weaker than that caused by the DBM framework. PCL is an FDA-approved polyester biomaterial ( Yadav et al, 2022 ) that has good biocompatibility and a relatively slow degradation rate with neutral and nontoxic degradation products ( Panigrahy and Rath, 2018 ; Backes et al, 2021 ; Bazgir et al, 2021 ), which may explain the low immunogenicity shown in this study. Although DBM is a natural biomaterial, during the production process, certain harmful bioactive components such as endotoxin and xenogenic protein are unavoidably retained to preserve the bioactivity of DBM ( Shi et al, 2018 ; Amirazad et al, 2022 ) ( Supplementary Figure S2 ), which might be why DBM triggered a more severe inflammatory response.…”

Characterization of Biological Properties of Dental Pulp Stem Cells Grown on an Electrospun Poly(l-lactide-co-caprolactone) Scaffold

“…However, the rate of scaffold degradation depends on the components and their proportion in the scaffold. According to Bazgir et al [ 52 ], PCL nonwoven electrospun membrane of thickness 0.11 mm lost about 20% of its weight for 12 weeks degradation in PBS in a room temperature. Pogorielov et al [ 53 ] found that PCL nanofibrous matrices lost 38 ± 5% of their mass during degradation in simulated body fluid for 12 weeks.…”

Multiscale-Engineered Muscle Constructs: PEG Hydrogel Micro-Patterning on an Electrospun PCL Mat Functionalized with Gold Nanoparticles

“…It was hypothesized that some PEG residues were still present and cross-linked within the electrospun mat when exposed to surrounding UV light, thus trapping the fibers deep inside and modifying the properties of the material. PCL biodegradability could ultimately contribute to decreasing the mechanical properties of the scaffold to a physiological range and promote neotissue formation [ 40 , 41 ]. However, this raises the question of the different rate of biodegradability of the PCL and PEG [ 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”