Preparation and Characterization of Porous Scaffolds Based on Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) and Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)

Poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) with different material properties, namely, the homopolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), P(3HB), and the copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate, P(3HB-co-3HV), with a 3HV of 25 wt.%, were used for the preparation of porous biopolymeric scaffolds. Solvent casting with particulate leaching (SCPL) and emulsion templating were evaluated to process these biopolymers in porous scaffolds. SCPL scaffolds were highly hydrophilic (>170% swelling in water) but fragile, probably due to the increase of the polymer’s polydispersity index and its high porosity (>50%). In contrast, the emulsion templating technique resulted in scaffolds with a good compromise between porosity (27–49% porosity) and hydrophilicity (>30% water swelling) and without impairing their mechanical properties (3.18–3.35 MPa tensile strength and 0.07–0.11 MPa Young’s Modulus). These specifications are in the same range compared to other polymer-based scaffolds developed for tissue engineering. P(3HB-co-3HV) displayed the best overall properties, namely, lower crystallinity (11.3%) and higher flexibility (14.8% elongation at break. Our findings highlight the potency of our natural biopolyesters for the future development of novel porous scaffolds in tissue engineering, thanks also to their safety and biodegradability.

Adhesion and Proliferation of Osteoblast-Like Cells on Porous Polyetherimide Scaffolds

The purpose of this work was to investigate the porous polyetherimide scaffold (P-PEIs) as an alternative biopolymer for bone tissue engineering. The P-PEIs was fabricated via solvent casting and particulate leaching technique. The morphology, phase composition, roughness, hydrophilicity, and biocompatibility of P-PEIs were evaluated and compared with polyetherimide (PEI) and Ti6Al4V disks. P-PEIs showed a biomimetic porous structure with a modulus of 78.95 ± 2.30 MPa. The water contact angle of P-PEIs was 75.4 ± 3.39°, which suggested that P-PEIs had a wettability surface. Moreover, P-PEIs provides a feasible environment for cell adhesion and proliferation. The relative cell adhesion capability and the cell morphology on P-PEIs were better than PEI and Ti6Al4V samples. Furthermore, the MC3T3-E1 cells on P-PEIs showed faster proliferation rate than other groups. It was revealed that the P-PEIs could be a potential material for the application of bone regeneration.

The Study of Brown Rice Starch Effect On Hydroxyapatite Composites

The fabrication of starch-hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds was conducted previously by using corn, tapioca and rice. Here, local brown rice was chosen as the source of starch since different type of rice may give different outcome of in term of the scaffold’s materials characteristics. The main aim of this study is to obtain a brown rice starch-hydroxyapatite (HA) composite scaffolds that could imitate the structure and the characteristics of a natural bone. The fabrication process involved solvent casting and particulate leaching method which using NaCl as a porogen agent. Four ratios of starch-HA were fabricated with concentration of starch 50wt%, 60wt%, 70wt% and 80wt%. Afterward, the effects of the brown rice starch on the scaffolds were investigated by water absorption test and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Here, only 50wt% and 60wt% ratio of starch-HA can be used to fabricate tissue scaffolds using solvent casting and particulate leaching method. Hence, the 60wt% ratio scaffolds has the highest water absorption of all and the pore’s size observed through SEM corresponded to this. The FTIR also shows there are more interactions between Brown Rice starch and HA for the 60wt% ratio.