One‐Pot Fabrication of Poly(ε‐Caprolactone)‐Incorporated Bovine Serum Albumin/Calcium Alginate/Hydroxyapatite Nanocomposite Scaffolds by High Internal Phase Emulsion Templates

Abstract

In this work, the authors report an effective one‐pot method to prepare poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL)‐incorporated bovine serum albumin (BSA)/calcium alginate/hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocomposite (NC) scaffolds by templating oil‐in‐water high internal phase emulsion (HIPE), which includes alginate, BSA, and HAp in water phase and PCL in oil phase. The water phase of HIPEs is solidified to form hydrogels containing emulsion droplets via gelation of alginate induced by Ca2+ ions released from HAp. And the prepared hydrogels are freeze‐dried to obtain PCL‐incorporated porous scaffolds. The obtained scaffolds possess interconnected pore structures. Increasing PCL concentration clearly enhances the compressive property and BSA stability, decreases the swelling ratio of scaffolds, which assists in improving the scaffold stability. The anti‐inflammatory drug ibuprofen can be highly efficiently loaded into scaffolds and released in a sustained rate. Furthermore, mouse bone mesenchymal stem cells can successfully proliferate on the scaffolds, proving the biocompatibility of scaffolds. All results show that the PCL‐incorporated NC scaffolds possess promising potentials in tissue engineering application.

Nonaqueous Synthesis of Macroporous Nanocomposites Using High Internal Phase Emulsion Stabilized by Nanohydroxyapatite

“…Attempts to integrate HA to biocompatible poly(HIPE) scaffolds include the synthesis of injectable HIPEs with unique rheological properties that cure in situ upon redox initiation . In another study, Wang and co‐workers have developed biodegradable poly(HIPEs) functionalized by poly( l ‐lactic acid)‐grafted HA particles via Pickering HIPEs and solvent evaporation, while with the aid of bovine serum albumin and calcium alginate, HA particles were incorporated into poly(ε‐caprolactone) poly(HIPE) . Bokhari et al, on the other hand, improved the osteoblast differentiation by perfusing a peptide solution into the nano HA‐containing poly(HIPE) .…”

“…Altogether, O/W or W/O HIPEs involved either aqueous phases with a variety of salts and other substances including phosphoric acid, or volatile organic solvents, some of the latter being highly toxic, such as toluene and dichloromethane. [10a,11,14] Besides the laborious, multistep, or sophisticated techniques and exhaustive washing with organic solvents, the integration of HA to these poly(HIPEs) has been restricted in some cases to its previous functionalization, thus decreasing its possible bioavailability at the surface of poly(HIPEs) cavities…”

The Chemistry of Porous Polymers: The Holey Grail

“…[104] Phase separation during polymerization and/or crosslinking was observed within HIPEs containing a significant amount of solvent in the external phase, achieving specific surface areas as high as 570 m 2 / g. [93,[105][106] The incorporation of other pore-generating processes within the PH walls includes the generation of highly porous PH walls using gel formation and drying and the generation of foamed PH walls using CO 2 -generating urea reactions. [107][108][109][110][111][112][113] The application of the previously described routes used to generate microporosity and mesoporosity could also be applied within the PH walls to generate monoliths with hierarchical porosities. The potential inherent within designable wall chemistries can be used to exploit emulsion templating even further.…”

Bioactive and Biocompatible Macroporous Scaffolds with Tunable Performances Prepared Based on 3D Printing of the Pre‐Crosslinked Sodium Alginate/Hydroxyapatite Hydrogel Ink

“…Until now, many natural and synthetic materials have been used to construct tissue engineering scaffolds, including alginate, chitosan, poly(ε‐caprolactone), and bioactive glass . Among all these materials, sodium alginate (SA), a natural polymer material, has attracted a great deal of attention owing to its nontoxicity, good biocompatibility, cellular compatibility, biodegradability, and the nontoxic degradation product .…”