Carletti Eleonora, Motta Antonella, Migliaresi Claudio
Department of Materials Engineering and Industrial Technologies and BIOTech Research Centre, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Methods Mol Biol. 2011;695:17-39. doi: 10.1007/978-1-60761-984-0_2.
In tissue engineering applications or even in 3D cell cultures, the biological cross talk between cells and the scaffold is controlled by the material properties and scaffold characteristics. In order to induce cell adhesion, proliferation, and activation, materials used for the fabrication of scaffolds must possess requirements such as intrinsic biocompatibility and proper chemistry to induce molecular biorecognition from cells. Materials, scaffold mechanical properties and degradation kinetics should be adapted to the specific tissue engineering application to guarantee the required mechanical functions and to accomplish the rate of the new-tissue formation. For scaffolds, pore distribution, exposed surface area, and porosity play a major role, whose amount and distribution influence the penetration and the rate of penetration of cells within the scaffold volume, the architecture of the produced extracellular matrix, and for tissue engineering applications, the final effectiveness of the regenerative process. Depending on the fabrication process, scaffolds with different architecture can be obtained, with random or tailored pore distribution. In the recent years, rapid prototyping computer-controlled techniques have been applied to the fabrication of scaffolds with ordered geometry. This chapter reviews the principal polymeric materials that are used for the fabrication of scaffolds and the scaffold fabrication processes, with examples of properties and selected applications.
在组织工程应用甚至三维细胞培养中，细胞与支架之间的生物相互作用由材料特性和支架特征所控制。为了诱导细胞黏附、增殖和激活，用于制造支架的材料必须具备诸如内在生物相容性和适当化学性质等要求，以诱导细胞进行分子生物识别。材料、支架机械性能和降解动力学应适应特定的组织工程应用，以确保所需的机械功能并实现新组织形成的速率。对于支架而言，孔隙分布、暴露表面积和孔隙率起着主要作用，其数量和分布会影响细胞在支架体积内的渗透及渗透速率、所产生细胞外基质的结构，以及对于组织工程应用来说，再生过程的最终有效性。根据制造工艺的不同，可以获得具有不同结构的支架，其孔隙分布可以是随机的或定制的。近年来，快速成型计算机控制技术已应用于制造具有规则几何形状的支架。本章回顾了用于制造支架的主要聚合物材料以及支架制造工艺，并举例说明了其性能和选定的应用。
