Effect of Pore Size on Cell Behavior Using Melt Electrowritten Scaffolds

Abstract

Tissue engineering technology has made major advances with respect to the repair of injured tissues, for which scaffolds and cells are key factors. However, there are still some issues with respect to the relationship between scaffold and cell growth parameters, especially that between the pore size and cells. In this study, we prepared scaffolds with different pore sizes by melt electrowritten (MEW) and used bone marrow mensenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), chondrocytes (CCs), and tendon stem cells (TCs) to study the effect of the scaffold pore size on cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. It was evident that different cells demonstrated different adhesion and proliferation rates on the scaffold. Furthermore, different cell types showed differential preferences for scaffold pore sizes, as evidenced by variations in cell viability. The pore size also affected the differentiation and gene expression pattern of cells. Among the tested cells, BMSCs exhibited the greatest viability on the 200-μm-pore-size scaffold, CCs on the 200- and 100-μm scaffold, and TCs on the 300-μm scaffold. The scaffolds with 100- and 200-μm pore sizes induced a significantly higher proliferation, chondrogenic gene expression, and cartilage-like matrix deposition after in vitro culture relative to the scaffolds with smaller or large pore sizes (especially 50 and 400 μm). Taken together, these results show that the architecture of 10 layers of MEW scaffolds for different tissues should be different and that the pore size is critical for the development of advanced tissue engineering strategies for tissue repair.

The Mechanosensing and Global DNA Methylation of Human Osteoblasts on MEW Fibers

“…The obtained fiber diameters results were in good agreement with our previous work [28]; however, the PCL-A group's pore size was smaller than ours [28]. This may be caused by technical variations during different manufacturing batches, while our PCL-R and PCL-A had similar pore sizes (~200 µm) since scaffold pore size is one of the critical factors directing adhesion and differentiation [38,39]. Additionally, mechanical testing demonstrated that the randomly organized membranes were softer than the aligned fibers with a respective tensile modulus of 32.5 ± 0.4 kPa and 56.7 ± 22.5 kPa, respectively.…”

Structural Characterization Analyses of Low Brass Filler Biomaterial for Hard Tissue Implanted Scaffold Applications

“…There were three pores visible in the side view of the biomaterial at 20,000 times magnification, and their average pore diameters were 308.9 nm, as shown in Figure 4. This result of the average pore diameter or size for this biomaterial [33] was appropriate for the effective pore size of healthy articular cartilage cells, which was estimated to be 6 nm [34]. This was a better accomplishment for the design of the biomaterial fabricating the hard tissue implanted scaffold since most of the biomaterials were micron scale.…”

A Simple Replica Method as the Way to Obtain a Morphologically and Mechanically Bone-like Iron-Based Biodegradable Material

“…The oval-shaped pores with a diameter of 200 to 400 µm affect not only the function of osteoblasts but also chondrogenic differentiation [43]. Correlations between pore size and osteogenesis were observed only at the beginning of osteogenesis (up to 12 weeks), which proves the applicability of the biodegradable scaffold [44]. An appropriate shape that has a positive effect on osteogenesis and chondrogenesis is the first necessary condition for a resorbable bone implant.…”