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We produced poro-us poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/hydroxyapatite (HA) composite scaffolds for bone regeneration, which can have a tailored macro/micro-porous structure with high mechanical properties and excellent in vitro bioactivity using non-solvent-induced phase separation (NIPS)-based 3D plotting. This innovative 3D plotting technique can create highly microporous PCL/HA composite filaments by inducing unique phase separation in PCL/HA solutions through the non-solvent-solvent exchange phenomenon. The PCL/HA composite scaffolds produced with various HA contents (0 wt %, 10 wt %, 15 wt %, and 20 wt %) showed that PCL/HA composite struts with highly microporous structures were well constructed in a controlled periodic pattern. Similar levels of overall porosity (~78 vol %) and pore size (~248 µm) were observed for all the PCL/HA composite scaffolds, which would be highly beneficial to bone tissue regeneration. Mechanical properties, such as ultimate tensile strength and compressive yield strength, increased with an increase in HA content. In addition, incorporating bioactive HA particles into the PCL polymer led to remarkable enhancements in in vitro apatite-forming ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We produced highly porous gelatin-siloxane (GLAS) hybrid scaffolds with biomimetic anisotropic porous structure, physiochemical properties, mechanical behaviors and biological functions by treating gelatin-siloxane hybrid gels in an ammonium hydroxide solution. The siloxane used as an inorganic phase could effectively crosslink the gelatin polymer, which allowed for the unidirectional enlargement of ammonia vacuoles during ammonium hydroxide treatment. This created aligned pores in an axial direction when the siloxane contents (10 and 20 wt %) were high. In addition, the gelatin polymer could be uniformly hybridized with the siloxane phase at the molecular level, while intense interaction between these two phases could be achieved. This resulted in a significant increase in mechanical properties. The GLA-S hybrid scaffold with a siloxane content of 10 wt % showed reasonably high compressive yield strength of 4.2 ± 0.1 MPa and compressive modulus of 84 ± 5 MPa at a porosity of 86 vol %, which would be comparable to those of natural cancellous bone. In addition, the GLA-S hybrid scaffold had good biocompatibility assessed by in vitro cell tests using pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We produced drug-loaded poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/silica hybrid nanofibrous scaffolds with various silica sol contents (0 vol%, 10 vol%, 15 vol%, and 20 vol%) using electrospinning and examined their physicochemical properties, mechanical properties, drug release behavior, and in vitro biocompatibility to evaluate their potential application for guided bone regeneration (GBR). The loading efficiency of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) drug was remarkably enhanced by hybridizing the PCL solution with the silica sol. All produced hybrid scaffolds had a highly nanofibrous structure, in which the silica phase was homogeneously hybridized with the PCL polymer, while preserving their intrinsic characteristics. This led to considerable increases in hydrophilicity and mechanical properties (e.g., ultimate tensile strength and elastic modulus). In addition, the release rate and cumulative maximum amounts of the TCH from the hybrid scaffolds significantly increased with increasing the silica content, while all produced hybrid nanofibrous scaffolds showed good biocompatibility assessed by in vitro cell tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]