Preliminary study on the adhesion and proliferation of human osteoblasts on sta...

• Author(s): Salgado, A. J. ; Gomes, Manuela E. ; Chou, A. ; Coutinho, O. P. ; Reis, R. L. ; Hutmacher, D. W.
• Date: 2002
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/14115
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Starch-based scaffolds; Degradable polymers; Tissue engineering; Cell culture; Osteoblast
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

Up to today, several techniques have been used to produce biodegradable porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this work, a new technique based on extrusion by using blowing agents in combination with a 50:50 (wt.%) blend of starch/cellulose acetate (SCA) was studied. The results show that by using this technique it was possible to obtain scaffolds with 70% of porosity and a fully interconnected network of pores, with sizes ranging from 200 to 500 Am. After their production, the mechanical properties of these scaffolds were tested, presenting a compressive modulus of 124.6F27.2 MPa and a compressive strength of 8.0F0.9 MPa. These values are within the best found in the literature and show that by using this technique, it is possible to produce scaffolds that, from a mechanical standpoint, may be suitable for bone tissue engineering. Cell culturing experiments showed that cells were viable and that there were no signs of cellular death after 3 weeks of culture. Finally, biochemical assays demonstrate that cells maintained the osteogenic phenotype throughout the experiment and deposition of mineralized extracellular matrix could be detected.