Subcritical CO2 sintering of microspheres of different polymeric materials to fabricate scaffolds for tissue engineering.

摘要: Abstract The aim of this study was to use CO2 at sub-critical pressures as a tool sinter 3D, macroporous, microsphere-based scaffolds for bone and cartilage tissue engineering. Porous composed ~ 200 μm microspheres either poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) or polycaprolactone (PCL) were prepared using dense phase sintering, which seeded with rat marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (rBMSCs), exposed osteogenic (PLGA, PCL) chondrogenic conditions 6 weeks. Under conditions, the PLGA constructs produced over an order magnitude more calcium than PCL constructs, whereas had far superior mechanical structural integrity (125 times stiffer constructs) week 6, along twice cell content constructs. Chondrogenic performance limited in perhaps result polymer degradation rate being too high. current represents first long-term culture CO2-sintered scaffolds, has established important thermodynamic differences sintering between selected formulations PCL, former requiring adjustment pressure only, latter both temperature. Based on straightforward favorable performance, may be material choice application, although different formulation encapsulation growth factors, extracellular matrix-derived nanoparticles, and/or buffers advantageous achieving observed here.