Acrylic scaffolds with interconnected spherical pores and controlled hydrophilicity for tissue engineering

Abstract

Polymer scaffolds are obtained in which the geometric characteristics (pore size, connectivity, porosity) and the physico-chemical properties of the resulting material can be controlled in an independent way. The interconnected porous structure was obtained using a template of sintered PMMA microspheres of controlled size. Copolymerization of hydrophobic ethyl acrylate and hydrophilic hydroxyethyl methacrylate comonomers took place in the free space of the template, different comonomer ratio gave rise to different hydrophilicity degrees of the material keeping the same pore architecture. The morphology of the resulting scaffolds was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the porosity of the material calculated, and the mechanical properties compared with those of the bulk (non porous) material of the same composition.

An Algorithm to Optimize the Micro-Geometrical Dimensions of Scaffolds with Spherical Pores

“…To compute the ratio E app / E , three different finite element models of the sole scaffold (i.e., the granulation tissue was removed) were built, with the following pairs of D s and D c values expressed in millimeters [mm]: ( D s = 0.85; D c = 0.55), ( D s = 0.75; D c = 0.5), ( D s = 0.65; D c = 0.45), which are close to the typical dimensions of pores commonly adopted in scaffolds for bony tissue [ 29 , 30 ]. These models were clamped on the lower base and subjected to a compression load of F UA = 0.1 MPa.…”

Influence of scaffold morphology on co‐cultures of human endothelial and adipose tissue‐derived stem cells

“…PEA scaffolds with isotropically intersecting spherical pores (PEA‐s hereafter) were obtained by using a poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, template obtained by sintering microspheres (Colacryl dp 300) under pressure and temperature, following the procedure described in Ref. . These templates were also placed between glass plates and then, the EA monomeric solution with 2 wt % EGDMA and 1 wt % benzoin was injected and polymerized with UV light for 24 h and finally post‐polymerized for 24 extra hours at 90°C.…”

in vitro development of bioimplants made up of elastomeric scaffolds with peptide gel filling seeded with human subcutaneous adipose tissue‐derived progenitor cells

“…Preparation of poly(ethyl acrylate), PEA, scaffolds : Poly(ethyl acrylate) elastomeric scaffolds with interconnected spherical pores were obtained by an ultraviolet polymerization of the monomer mixture and a template leaching technique, following the procedure described in Refs. . Briefly, ethyl acrylate (99%, Sigma Aldrich) monomer was mixed with 1 wt % of benzoin (98%, Scharlau) as photo‐initiator and 2 wt % of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (98%, Sigma Aldrich) as cross‐linker, stirred for 20 min, injected in a porogen template consisting of sintered poly(methyl methacrylate) microspheres of 130 ± 20 μm in diameter (PMMA;Colacryl dp 300), polymerized in a mold, and postcured in an oven at 90 ºC for 24 h. After polymerization, the PMMA templates, as well as residual substances of low molecular weight, were removed by soxhlet extraction with acetone (Scharlab).…”