In vitro degradation of electrospun polycaprolactone tissue engineering scaffolds under cyclical dynamic loading

摘要: The employment of biodegradable and implantable medical materials presents numerous potential advantages. In some applications, the need for additional interventions to remove the implant can be avoided. 1 In other situations, in which permanent implants represent the state-of-the-art, biodegradable designs offer the potential to eliminate problems associated with long-term tolerance of the implant. Biodegradable materials can be used to carry biologically active agents to be delivered locally such that healing/growing is promoted or enhanced. Biodegradable materials also offer great potential as scaffolding in tissue engineering (TE), as extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesized naturally by seeded cells can gradually replace them and take over supporting roles. Biodegradable scaffolds do not only perform acutely after cell seeding providing stress-shielding and mechanical support and function, but should also follow a designed load-transfer path from the degrading scaffold to the developing dense connective tissue over time. 2, 3 This load-transfer can also provide mechanical cues that are transferred downscale to impart mechano-stimulation on the cells and to guide growth of de novo tissue with appropriate mechanical properties to remain in function once the scaffold is fully absorbed.The employment of biodegradable materials is particularly challenging in TE because scaffolds are expected to bear and withstand mechanical loads, and in addition, are inherently evolving over time. Tissue engineers must optimize the appropriate scaffold characteristics or the material formulation (among many other design parameters) which result in …