Solution-based processing for scaffold fabrication in tissue engineering applications: A brief review

The fabrication of 3D scaffolds is under wide investigation in tissue engineering (TE) because of its incessant development of new advanced technologies and the improvement of traditional processes. Currently, scientific and clinical research focuses on scaffold characterization to restore the function of missing or damaged tissues. A key for suitable scaffold production is the guarantee of an interconnected porous structure that allows the cells to grow as in native tissue. The fabrication techniques should meet the appropriate requirements, including feasible reproducibility and time-and cost-effective assets. This is necessary for easy processability, which is associated with the large range of biomaterials supporting the use of fabrication technologies. This paper presents a review of scaffold fabrication methods starting from polymer solutions that provide highly porous structures under controlled process parameters. In this review, general information of solution-based technologies, including freeze-drying, thermally or diffusion induced phase separation (TIPS or DIPS), and electrospinning, are presented, along with an overview of their technological strategies and applications. Furthermore, the differences in the fabricated constructs in terms of pore size and distribution, porosity, morphology, and mechanical and biological properties, are clarified and critically reviewed. Then, the combination of these techniques for obtaining scaffolds is described, offering the advantages of mimicking the unique architecture of tissues and organs that are intrinsically difficult to design

Physical and biological properties of electrospun poly(d,l-lactide)/nanoclay and poly(d,l-lactide)/nanosilica nanofibrous scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Electrospun scaffolds exhibiting high physical performances with the ability to support cell attachment and proliferation are attracting more and more scientific interest for tissue engineering applications. The inclusion of inorganic nanoparticles such as nanosilica and nanoclay into electrospun biopolymeric matrices can meet these challenging requirements. The silica and clay incorporation into polymeric nanofibers has been reported to enhance and improve the mechanical properties as well as the osteogenic properties of the scaffolds. In this work, for the first time, the physical and biological properties of polylactic acid (PLA) electrospun mats filled with different concentrations of nanosilica and nanoclay were evaluated and compared. The inclusion of the particles was evaluated through morphological investigations and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The morphology of nanofibers was differently affected by the amount and kind of fillers and it was correlated to the viscosity of the polymeric suspensions. The wettability of the scaffolds, evaluated through wet contact angle measurements, slightly increased for both the nanocomposites. The crystallinity of the systems was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry highlighting the nucleating action of both nanosilica and nanoclay on PLA. Scaffolds were mechanically characterized with tensile tests to evaluate the reinforcing action of the fillers. Finally, cell culture assays with pre-osteoblastic cells were conducted on a selected composite scaffold in order to compare the cell proliferation and morphology with that of neat PLA scaffolds. Based on the results, we can convince that nanosilica and nanoclay can be both considered great potential fillers for electrospun systems engineered for bone tissue regeneration

A High-Throughput Mechanical Activator for Cartilage Engineering Enables Rapid Screening of in vitro Response of Tissue Models to Physiological and Supra-Physiological Loads

Articular cartilage is crucially influenced by loading during development, health, and disease. However, our knowledge of the mechanical conditions that promote engineered cartilage maturation or tissue repair is still incomplete. Current in vitro models that allow precise control of the local mechanical environment have been dramatically limited by very low throughput, usually just a few specimens per experiment. To overcome this constraint, we have developed a new device for the high throughput compressive loading of tissue constructs: the High Throughput Mechanical Activator for Cartilage Engineering (HiT-MACE), which allows the mechanoactivation of 6 times more samples than current technologies. With HiT-MACE we were able to apply cyclic loads in the physiological (e.g., equivalent to walking and normal daily activity) and supra-physiological range (e.g., injurious impacts or extensive overloading) to up to 24 samples in one single run. In this report, we compared the early response of cartilage to physiological and supra-physiological mechanical loading to the response to IL-1β exposure, a common but rudimentary in vitro model of cartilage osteoarthritis. Physiological loading rapidly upregulated gene expression of anabolic markers along the TGF-β1 pathway. Notably, TGF-β1 or serum was not included in the medium. Supra-physiological loading caused a mild catabolic response while IL-1β exposure drove a rapid anabolic shift. This aligns well with recent findings suggesting that overloading is a more realistic and biomimetic model of cartilage degeneration. Taken together, these findings showed that the application of HiT-MACE allowed the use of larger number of samples to generate higher volume of data to effectively explore cartilage mechanobiology, which will enable the design of more effective repair and rehabilitation strategies for degenerative cartilage pathologies

Engineered membranes for residual cell trapping on microfluidic blood plasma separation systems. A comparison between porous and nanofibrous membranes

Blood-based clinical diagnostics require challenging limit-of-detection for low abundance, circulating molecules in plasma. Micro-scale blood plasma separation (BPS) has achieved remarka-ble results in terms of plasma yield or purity, but rarely achieving both at the same time. Here, we proposed the first use of electrospun polylactic-acid (PLA) membranes as filters to remove residual cell population from continuous hydrodynamic-BPS devices. The membranes hydrophilicity was improved by adopting a wet chemistry approach via surface aminolysis as demonstrated through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Water Contact Angle analysis. The usability of PLA-membranes was assessed through degradation measurements at extreme pH values. Plasma purity and hemolysis were evaluated on plasma samples with residual red blood cell content (1, 3, 5% hematocrit) corresponding to output from existing hydrodynamic BPS systems. Commercially available membranes for BPS were used as benchmark. Results highlighted that the electrospun membranes are suitable for downstream residual cell removal from blood, permitting the collection of up to 2 mL of pure and low-hemolyzed plasma. Fluorometric DNA quantification revealed that electrospun membranes did not significantly affect the concentration of circulating DNA. PLA-based electrospun membranes can be combined with hydrodynamic BPS in order to achieve high volume plasma separation at over 99% plasma purity

Tubular composite scaffolds produced via Diffusion Induced Phase Separation (DIPS) as a shaping strategy for anterior cruciate ligaments reconstruction

Injuries of tendons and ligaments are common, especially among the young population. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries do not heal due to its limited vascularization and hence, surgical intervention is usually required. The ideal scaffold for ligament tissue engineering (TE) should be biocompatible and possess mechanical and functional characteristics comparable to the native ACL. The Diffusion Induced Phase Separation (DIPS) technique allows the preparation of homogenous porous tubular scaffold with micro-pores using a rather simple procedure. Composites based on biodegradable polymers and bioglass have attracted much attention in tissue reconstruction and repair because of their biological and physicochemical advantages. In this work a new approach in ACL TE will be proposed focussing on the development of a suitable technique for in vitro seeding of lapine ACL fibroblasts into tubular-shaped instructive Poly-lactic-acid (PLLA) scaffolds, supplemented or not with bioglass (BG) 1393, produced via DIPS. Tubular composite scaffold (diameters: 1.2 and 2 mm, +/- BG) were obtained through a dip coating around a cylindrical support followed by a DIPS. An 8%wt PLLA/dioxane solution was prepared with 5%wt of BG-1393 as filler. Preliminary in vitro cell culture trials were carried out by seeding lapine ACL fibroblasts inside the scaffolds (2 cm as length) employing different seeding strategies in order to find the best way that allows to obtain a homogeneous fibroblast distribution inside the tubes. (1) First trials consisted in the inoculating of the cell suspension inside the tubes and maintaining them in dynamical culture. (2) The second one was done by suspending the cells in a fibrin gel polymerized within the tubes by using of thrombin. (3) The third approach was carried out by using cell spheroids (three-dimensional self-assembled cell agglomerates). Cell attachment, viability and morphology were examined by live-death and Hematoxylin/Eosin stainings after 1, 7, 14 d and vimentin immunolabelings (7 d). Scanning electron microscopical analysis revealed that the internal surface of the tubes was homogeneously structured with micropores sized around 5 µm and a mean thickness of the wall of 60 µm. The results showed cell adhesion to the wall of the tubes with all seeding techniques applied even though with fibrin gel it was more homogenous. Furthermore, colonized areas expanded with culture time and the majority of cell survived irrespectively of seeding techniques. (1) In inoculation phase, many cells left the scaffold and attached on the plate. Even after the dynamic culture (rotating device) most cells covered only half the tube inner surface. (2) In the second trial, a fibrin gel was used to achieve a homogenous cell distribution during seeding. In the early stage (48 h) cells remained captured inside the fibrin, but after 7 d they become elongated and migrated from the fibrin to the inner tube surface forming a compact cell layer. So, the fibrin appears helpful to achieve an immediate high cell seeding efficiency and an almost homogeneous cell distribution inside the tubes. (3) Although using the spheroid technique the scaffold internal surface was not homogeneously colonized with cells, after 7 d cell migration to the inner scaffold surface from the attaching spheroids could be observed. In longitudinal sections cells were elongated like typical ligament fibroblasts parallel to the longitudinal tube axis. Therefore, it can be affirmed that employment of tubular scaffolds produced by DIPS could be a promising approach of ligament TE. In the future, it would be interesting to evaluate the effectiveness of seeding by combining the spheroids and the fibrin gel

Polylactic is a Sustainable, Low Absorption, Low Autofluorescence Alternative to Other Plastics for Microfluidic and Organ-on-Chip Applications

Organ-on-chip (OOC) devices are miniaturized devices replacing animal models in drug discovery and toxicology studies. The majority of OOC devices are made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), an elastomer widely used in microfluidic prototyping, but posing a number of challenges to experimentalists, including leaching of uncured oligomers and uncontrolled absorption of small compounds. Here we assess the suitability of polylactic acid (PLA) as a replacement material to PDMS for microfluidic cell culture and OOC applications. We changed the wettability of PLA substrates and demonstrated the functionalization method to be stable over a time period of at least 9 months. We successfully cultured human cells on PLA substrates and devices, without coating. We demonstrated that PLA does not absorb small molecules, is transparent (92% transparency), and has low autofluorescence. As a proof of concept of its manufacturability, biocompatibility, and transparency, we performed a cell tracking experiment of prostate cancer cells in a PLA device for advanced cell culture

Preparation of Poly(l-lactic acid) Scaffolds by Thermally Induced Phase Separation: Role of Thermal History

Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA) scaffolds for tissue engineering were prepared via thermally induced phase separation of a ternary system PLLA/dioxane/tetrahydrofurane. An extension to solution of a previously developed method for solidification from the melt was adopted, the technique being based on a Continuous Cooling Transformation (CCT) approach, consisting in recording the thermal history of rapidly cooled samples and analysing the resulting morphology. Different foams were produced by changing the thermal history, the dioxane to THF ratio (50/50, 70/30, 90/10 v/v) and the polymer concentration (2, 2.5, 4% wt) in the starting ternary solution. Pore size, porosity, melting and crystallization behavior were studied, together with a morphological and kinetic analysis of the foams produced. A large variety of morphologies was achieved, the largest pore size (20 mu m) was achieved at the highest polymer concentration (4% wt) and the lowest dioxane concentration (50/50 dioxane/THF v/v), whereas the largest porosity (90%) was attained at the highest dioxane concentration (90/10). The average pore size is related to cooling rate, with a 1/3 power law exponent at low polymer concentrations and low dioxane content for thermal histories driven by low undercoolings. At high undercoolings, the growth of the demixed domains significantly departs from the diffusive-like regime