title: Integration of PCL and PLA in a monolithic porous scaffold for interface tissue engineering.
abstract: A novel bi-layered multiphasic scaffold (BLS) have been fabricated for the first time by combining melt mixing, compression molding and particulate leaching. One layer has been composed by polylactic acid (PLA) presenting pore size in the range of 90-110µm while the other layer has been made of polycaprolactone (PCL) with pores ranging from 5 to 40µm. The different chemo-physical properties of the two biopolymers combined with the tunable pore architecture permitted to realize monolithic functionally graded scaffolds engineered to be potentially used for interface tissues regenerations. BLS have been characterized from a morphological and a mechanical point of view. In particular, mechanical tests have been carried out both in air and immersing the specimens in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution at 37°C, in order to evaluate the elastic modulus and the interlayer adhesion strength. Fibroblasts and osteoblasts have been cultured and co-cultured in order to investigate the cells permeation trough the different layers. The results indicate that the presented method is appropriate for the preparation of multiphasic porous scaffolds with tunable morphological and mechanical characteristics. Furthermore, the cells seeded were found to grow with a different trend trough the different layers thus demonstrating that the presented device has good potential to be used in interface tissue regeneration applications.
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, UdR INSTM di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy. Electronic address: roberto.scaffaro@unipa.it.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scaffaro
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, UdR INSTM di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lopresti
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale, Aerospaziale, dei Materiali, UdR INSTM di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 6, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Botta
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 16, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatrice
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rigogliuso
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche, Chimiche e Farmaceutiche, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 16, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ghersi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D055119:Elastic Modulus; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000166:cytology; D011091:Polyesters / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D011091:Polyesters; C016240:polycaprolactone; C033616:poly(lactide)
keywords: Chemical gradient; Functionally graded scaffold; Interface tissue engineering; Melt mixing; Particulate leaching; Pore size gradient