title: A flexible approach to the preparation of polymer scaffolds for tissue engineering.
abstract: Porous polyester thermoset xerogels have been produced via sol-gel chemistry as a first step in the development of sol-gel derived tissue engineering scaffolds templated by replica molding and/or salt leaching. The pore structure of these untemplated thermosets is tunable and can be altered independent of or in tandem with alterations in composition. Cytocompatibility studies on these xerogels imply the effects of both pore size and materials chemistry, with fully aliphatic polyesters with large pore structures allowing the growth of mammalian cells. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first report examining the preparation and potential of sol-gel derived porous polymer xerogels as tissue engineering scaffolds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastics Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 1 University Avenue, Lowell, MA 01854, USA.
authors.forename: Poonam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Borgaonkar
authors.forename: Sachin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sankha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhowmick
authors.forename: Daniel F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005782:Gels / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D015394:Molecular Structure; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D044367:Phase Transition; D011091:Polyesters / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D011091:Polyesters