Polylactic acid fibre-reinforced polycaprolactone scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Biomaterials. 2008 Sep;29(27):3662-3670. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2008.05.024. Epub 2008 Jun 10.

Abstract

The employment of composite scaffolds with a well-organized architecture and multi-scale porosity certainly represents a valuable approach for achieving a tissue engineered construct to reproduce the middle and long-term behaviour of hierarchically complex tissues such as spongy bone. In this paper, fibre-reinforced composites scaffold for bone tissue engineering applications is described. These are composed of poly-L-lactide acid (PLLA) fibres embedded in a porous poly(epsilon-caprolactone) matrix, and were obtained by synergistic use of phase inversion/particulate leaching technique and filament winding technology. Porosity degree as high as 79.7% was achieved, the bimodal pore size distribution showing peaks at ca 10 and 200 microm diameter, respectively, accounting for 53.7% and 46.3% of the total porosity. In vitro degradation was carried out in PBS and SBF without significant degradation of the scaffold after 35 days, while in NaOH solution, a linear increase of weight lost was observed with preferential degradation of PLLA component. Subsequently, marrow stromal cells (MSC) and human osteoblasts (HOB) reached a plateau at 3 weeks, while at 5 weeks the number of cells was almost the same. Human marrow stromal cell and trabecular osteoblasts rapidly proliferate on the scaffold up to 3 weeks, promoting an oriented migration of bone cells along the fibre arrangement. Moreover, the role of seeded HOB and MSC on composite degradation mechanism was assessed by demonstrating a more relevant contribution to PLLA degradation of MSC when compared to HOB. The novel PCL/PLLA composite scaffolds thus showed promise whenever tuneable porosity, controlled degradability and guided cell-material interaction are simultaneously requested.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bone Development*
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Humans
  • Lactic Acid / chemistry*
  • Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
  • Polyesters / chemistry*
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Tissue Engineering*

Substances

  • Polyesters
  • Polymers
  • polycaprolactone
  • Lactic Acid
  • poly(lactide)