Fabrication of co‐continuous poly(ε‐caprolactone)/polyglycolide blend scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

The apparent inability of a single biomaterial to meet all the requirements for tissue engineering scaffolds has led to continual research in novel engineered biomaterials. One method to provide new materials and fine‐tune their properties is via mixing materials. In this study, a biodegradable powder blend of poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL), polyglycolide (PGA), and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was prepared and three‐dimensional interconnected porous PCL/PGA scaffolds were fabricated by combining cryomilling and compression molding/polymer leaching techniques. The resultant porous scaffolds exhibited co‐continuous morphologies with ∼50% porosity. Mean pore sizes of 24 and 56 μm were achieved by varying milling time. The scaffolds displayed high mechanical properties and water uptake, in addition to a remarkably fast degradation rate. The results demonstrate the potential of this fabrication approach to obtain PCL/PGA blend scaffolds with interconnected porosity. In general, these results provide significant insight into an approach that will lead to the development of new composites and blends in scaffold manufacturing. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 42471.

Poly(glycolic acid) (PGA): a versatile building block expanding high performance and sustainable bioplastic applications

“… 12 min, 30 min, and one h milled scaffold mimic human articular cartilage in terms of its compressive modulus and 12 min cryo-milled sample optimum for chondrocyte growth. Poly (ethylene oxide), PCL, and PGA 120 Tissue engineering  Scaffolds prepared by combining cryo-milling, compression molding, and polymer leaching.  Scaffolds exhibited co-continuous morphologies with the porosity of ~50 %.…”

Preparation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxy-valerate) (PHBV)-based composites using poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) and bagasse

“…Since the purchased PBAT raw material was granular, while PHBV and bagasse were powdered, the PBAT particles were frozen and ground into powder, and the composites were prepared by powder blending and hot pressing (Allaf et al 2015;Zaidi and Crosky 2019). At the same time, comparison materials were prepared by melt-blending granular PBAT, powdered PHBV, and powdered bagasse with a twin-screw extruder and then hot pressing.…”

Nanocarbons in Electrospun Polymeric Nanomats for Tissue Engineering: A Review

“…Usually, polymers for TE applications are designed to match the regeneration rate of tissue in order to disappear when the cells begin to regenerate it. Biocompatible and biodegradable natural and synthetic polymers such as polyglycolides (PGA) [ 70 ], polylactides (PLA) [ 1 , 2 , 17 , 26 , 71 ], polycaprolactone (PCL) [ 7 , 17 , 18 , 72 ], various copolymers [ 43 ], polyurethanes (PU) [ 73 ], collagens [ 74 , 75 ], gelatin [ 76 ], chitosans [ 77 ], silk fibroin (SF) [ 41 , 73 ], and alginates [ 78 ] are extensively investigated for this purpose. NPs are likely able to affect these features of the polymer matrices thus giving the designer the possibility to tune specific properties or even endow the materials with additional features [ 7 ].…”