Poly(<I>ε</I>-caprolactone) Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering: A Brief Overview

Abstract

Polycaprolactone is a bioresorbable polymer that has been extensively used in the biomaterials field and a number of drug-delivery systems. The superior rheological and viscoelastic properties of this polymer render it easy to manufacture and manipulate into a large range of medical devices and implants. The advantage of polycaprolactone over its aliphatic counterparts is that it has a long-term degradation period, which provides a good platform for the design and fabrication of implants that require long-term degradation kinetics for example in bone tissue engineering. The incorporation of nanofillers or blending of polycaprolactone with other polymers has yielded a class of hybrid materials with significantly improved physical and chemical properties such as strength, porosity, microstructure, controllable degradation rates, and bioactivity that are important for tissue engineering. This overview highlights the interesting advancements in polycaprolactone polymeric systems that relate to biological and tissue engineering applications, including aspects of technology in fabricating the scaffolds.

The Interactions Between Aligned Poly(L-Lactic Acid) Nanofibers and SH-SY5Y Cells In Vitro

“…The protein expression levels of p-ERK1/2, ERK1/2 and GAPDH in the SH-SY5Y cells that were cultured on PLLA films (control group), aligned PLLA nanofibers (AF group) and aligned PLLA nanofibers with the cell culture medium in addition with 0.5 mg/mL pentapeptide GRGDS (GA group). engineering, [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] it will be important to investigate the interaction mechanism between cells and materials fabricated by nanotechnologies. We believe that the results shown above might be helpful to guide the design and application of aligned nanofibers in regeneration medicine fields such as nerve tissue engineering.…”

Tunable Drug Loading and Reinforcement of Polycaprolactone Films by Means of Electrospun Nanofibers of Glycolide Segmented Copolymers

“…Poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) is a biodegradable, biocompatible, easily processed polymer. Despite significant disadvantages such as poor barrier properties, low melting temperature, and low modulus, PCL has wide applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery, and packaging . Therefore, PCL appears as an ideal matrix for successful loading of biodegradable, biocompatible nanofillers which improve its mechanical properties and extend its range of application as a drug delivery system.…”

P34HB film promotes cell adhesion, in vitro proliferation, and in vivo cartilage repair

“…Zhang et al 14 used the Cre-loxP technique to remove the insulin receptor (IR) from chondrocytes and showed that the loss of IR signaling causes an up-regulation of insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1R, which appear to act in a compensatory fashion to regulate the proliferation of chondrocytes. 21 The natural amorphous copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P34HB), as a member of the bacterial biopolyesterpolyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) family, is becoming a desirable candidate due to its remarkable mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. However, to date, there is no satisfactory treatment that enables the full restoration of injured articular cartilage to its original phenotype.…”