title: Gas-in-liquid foam templating as a method for the production of highly porous scaffolds.
abstract: In the present work, a novel synthetic methodology for the preparation of scaffold of biopolymeric nature is described. In particular, a porous gelatin scaffold was prepared by foam templating. The gas phase, nitrogen, was generated by means of the reaction between sulfamic acid and sodium nitrite in situ a concentrated solution of gelatin and in the presence of a suitable polymeric surfactant in association with sodium dodecyl sulfate. The foam was prepared at a temperature of 45 degrees C and then let gel at 5 degrees C. After purification, the physical gel was auto-cross-linked with EDC and freeze-dried. The scaffold synthesized with this technique presents a morphology characterized by voids of spherical symmetry highly interconnected by a plurality of interconnects, and, as a consequence, is particularly suited for cell culturing. In more quantitative terms, voids and interconnects are characterized by an average diameter of 230 and 90 microm, respectively. Preliminary tests of cell culturing demonstrated the suitability of such a scaffold for tissue engineering applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, La Sapienza University of Rome, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. andrea.barbetta@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbetta
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gumiero
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pecci
authors.forename: Rossella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bedini
authors.forename: Mariella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dentini
mesh_terms: D002460:Cell Line; D002470:Cell Survival; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D005780:Gelatin / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010969:Plastics / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D010969:Plastics; D005780:Gelatin