Microwave processing of starch‐based porous structures for tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

A novel microwave (MW) processing technique was used to produce biodegradable scaffolds for tissue engineering from different types of starch-based polymers. Potato, sweet potato, corn starch, and nonisolated amaranth and quinoa starch were used to produce porous structures. Water and glycerol were used as plasticizers for the different types of starch. Characterization of the pore morphology of the scaffolds was carried out with scanning electron microscopy. Three-dimensional structures with variable porosity and pore size distribution were obtained with the MW foaming technique. The amount of remaining water in the scaffolds and their corresponding densities showed important variations among the different types of starch. Compressive mechanical properties were assessed by indentation tests, and a strong dependence of the indentation stress on the average pore size was found. Studies in simulated body fluid were used to assess the in vitro bioactivity, degradability, and surface topology evolution in the scaffolds.

A review: Starch-based composite foams

“…For the purpose of tissue engineering use, it has been reported that the scaffolds of starch-based porous structures could also be prepared by microwave heating [62]. The density of produced foams made of potato, sweet potato and corn starch are in the range of 0.19-0.30, 0.55-0.62, 0.37-0.47 g/cm 3 and the mean pore sizes are approximately 600-800, 100-400, and 200-300 μm, respectively.…”

Synthesis and processing of biodegradable and bio-based polymers by microwave irradiation

“…In a recent work epoxies of linseed oil and dehydrated castor oil were blended with PVA within 2 min of microwave irradiation (75 °C; 350 W) with the aim to develop new biobased materials with desirable properties for packaging and mulching: as usual, the chief advantage over conventional blending procedures is reported to be the extremely short processing time (Riaz et al, 2011). According to several authors, microwave foaming under vacuum (Jaja & Durance, 2008) or at atmospheric pressure (Torres et al, 2007) proved to be an effective route to obtain porous materials for tissue engineering applications from polymeric gels. It is worth reminding that microwave transparent polymers, such as HDPE, may easily be processed employing microwaves as energy source in the presence of highly absorbing fillers and additives like carbon black (F. Liu et al, 2010).…”

Functional properties of microporous wheat starch produced by α-amylase and sonication

“…Supercritical CO 2 technology, single or dual freezing processes, microwave and extrusion cooking of starch have been used to produce MP starch (Guan et al, 2004;Torres et al, 2007;Qian et al,2011). However, in recent years, MP starches have been produced mainly by partial hydrolysis of native starch at sub-gelatinization temperature using enzymatic methods which results in reduction of energy costs (Aggarwal and Dollimore, 1998).…”