Flexible Polycaprolactone and Polycaprolactone/Graphene Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Materials (Basel). 2019 Sep 16;12(18):2991. doi: 10.3390/ma12182991.

Abstract

Developing bone scaffolds can greatly improve the patient's quality of life by accelerating the rehabilitation process. In this paper, we studied the process of composite polycaprolactone supercritical foaming for tissue engineering. The influence of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide on the foaming parameters was studied. The structural and mechanical properties were studied. The scaffolds demonstrated mechanical flexibility and endurance. The co-culturing and live/dead tests demonstrated that the obtained scaffolds are biocompatible. Different composite scaffolds induced various surface cell behaviors. The experimental data demonstrate that composite foams are promising candidates for in vivo medical trials.

Keywords: flexible composite; graphene oxide; polycaprolactone; scaffold; supercritical foaming.