Suitability of a PLCL fibrous scaffold for soft tissue engineering applications: A combined biological and mechanical characterisation

Abstract

Poly(lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL) has been reported to be a good candidate for tissue engineering because of its good biocompatibility. Particularly, a braided PLCL scaffold (PLL/PCL ratio = 85/15) has been recently designed and partially validated for ligament tissue engineering. In the present study, we assessed the in vivo biocompatibility of acellular and cellularised scaffolds in a rat model. We then determined its in vitro biocompatibility using stem cells issued from both bone marrow and Wharton Jelly. From a biological point of view, the scaffold was shown to be suitable for tissue engineering in all these cases. Secondly, while the initial mechanical properties of this scaffold have been previously reported to be adapted to load-bearing applications, we studied the evolution in time of the mechanical properties of PLCL fibres due to hydrolytic degradation. Results for isolated PLCL fibres were extrapolated to the fibrous scaffold using a previously developed numerical model. It was shown that no accumulation of plastic strain was to be expected for a load-bearing application such as anterior cruciate ligament tissue engineering. However, PLCL fibres exhibited a non-expected brittle behaviour after two months. This may involve a potential risk of premature failure of the scaffold, unless tissue growth compensates this change in mechanical properties. This combined study emphasises the need to characterise the properties of biomaterials in a pluridisciplinary approach, since biological and mechanical characterisations led in this case to different conclusions concerning the suitability of this scaffold for load-bearing applications.

Evolution of Bioengineered Lung Models: Recent Advances and Challenges in Tissue Mimicry for Studying the Role of Mechanical Forces in Cell Biology

“…Blends of PCL/natural polymers met the mechanical properties such as elasticity, reversible elongation and energy absorbed up to the elastic point reported for the basement membrane in the alveolar region. Other synthetic polymers such as P(LLA‐CL) also showed appropriate mechanical properties for soft tissue applications . For instance, electrospun hybrid scaffolds of collagen/P(LLA‐CL) has been used for application of cardiovascular tissue engineering .…”

Experiment and modelling of the strain-rate-dependent response during in vitro degradation of PLA fibres

“…As far our knowledge goes, there are no similar published studies on hydrolytic degradation of PLA. Previous works considered the whole stress-strain curve but discarded the strain rate effects [37][38][39].…”

Characterization of Bone Marrow and Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Response on Multilayer Braided Silk and Silk/PLCL Scaffolds for Ligament Tissue Engineering

“…The cell proliferation and migration as well as the extracellular matrix synthesis were promoted, indicating a strong potential for ligament regeneration. However, in the same study we had also observed a premature risk of mechanical failure in the first weeks of implantation due to PLCL [ 16 ]. On the contrary, silk was reported to degrade in more than one year, which may not coordinate with the neo-tissue development rate.…”

“…In our previous study [ 15 ], PLCL (poly-( l -lactide- co -ε-caprolactone)) has been used to construct a multilayer braided scaffold for tissue engineering application. The PLCL scaffold showed satisfying initial mechanical properties and biocompatibility, and encouraged the adhesion, migration, proliferation of cells as well as tissue regeneration [ 15 , 16 ]. Moreover, this scaffold exhibited high flexibility and tunable elasticity, showing potential application towards ligament regeneration.…”

“…Moreover, this scaffold exhibited high flexibility and tunable elasticity, showing potential application towards ligament regeneration. Nevertheless, our team has recently reported [ 16 ] that PLCL may present a brittle mechanical response after 48 days of in vitro degradation, resulting in a risk or premature failure of the scaffold if the tissue regeneration is not sufficient in the early weeks of implantation. Based on previous studies that have confirmed the suitability of both PLCL and silk towards ligament tissues, their association into composite scaffolds may constitute a means to achieve the suited mechanical behavior and degradation properties in the challenge of proposing a solution for ligament tissue engineering.…”