In this study, the surface of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffold was modified by chitosan (CS) in order to enhance its cell affinity and biocompatibility. It is demonstrated by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) that when 0.5-2.0 wt% chitosan solutions are used to modify the PCL scaffold, the amount of adhesion of the fibroblasts on the chitosan-modified PCL scaffolds dramatically increase when compared to the control after 7 days cell culture. The results indicate that the chitosan-modified PCL scaffolds are more favorable for cell proliferation by improving the scaffold biocompatibility. The improvement may be helpful for the extensive applications of PCL scaffold in heart valve and blood vessel tissue engineering.

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Methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) was used as the chain extender for low molecular weight poly(lactic acid) (PLA) to produce high molecular weight biodegradable polymer material with a better heat resistance. PLA prepolymer with a number-average molecular weight (M n ) of 5800 and a weight-average molecular weight (M w ) of 9800 was produced by direct polycondensation using stannous octoate as the catalyst. After 40 min of chain extension at 175°C, the resulting polymer had a M n of 15,000 and a M w of 57,000. The glass transition temperature (T g ) of the low molecular weight PLA prepolymer was 48.6°C. After chain extension, the T g of the resulting polymer was raised to 67.9°C, as determined by DSC. DMA results also indicate that the heat resistance was improved by the chain extension. The DSC spectrum and X-ray diffraction pattern of annealed samples showed that both the crystallinity and rate of crystallization of PLA were lowered by chain-extension reaction due to the formation of branched molecular structure.

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A stable normal IOP is essential for maintaining normal visual cortical functions. During a brief and high elevation of IOP, the cortical processing of high-spatial-frequency visual information was diminished because of a selectively functional decline of the retinogeniculocortical X pathway by a mechanism of retinal circulation origin.

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