Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (CSIC), Campus de la UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
Biofabrication. 2017 Jun 30;9(3):035002. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/aa78c5.
Supercritical foaming allows for the solvent-free processing of synthetic scaffolds for bone regeneration. However, the control on the pore interconnectivity and throat pore size with this technique still needs to be improved. The use of plasticizers may help overcome these limitations. Eugenol, a GRAS natural compound extracted from plants, is proposed in this work as an advanced plasticizer with bioactive properties. Eugenol-containing poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds were obtained by supercritical foaming (20.0 MPa, 45 °C, 17 h) followed by a one or a two-step depressurization profile. The effects of the eugenol content and the depressurization profile on the porous structure of the material and the physicochemical properties of the scaffold were evaluated. The combination of both processing parameters was successful to simultaneously tune the pore interconnectivity and throat sizes to allow mesenchymal stem cells infiltration. Scaffolds with eugenol were cytocompatible, presented antimicrobial activity preventing the attachment of Gram positive (S. aureus, S. epidermidis) bacteria and showed good tissue integration.
超临界发泡允许无溶剂处理用于骨再生的合成支架。然而，用这种技术控制孔的连通性和喉孔尺寸仍需要改进。使用增塑剂可能有助于克服这些限制。在这项工作中，从植物中提取的 GRAS 天然化合物丁香酚被提议作为一种具有生物活性的先进增塑剂。通过超临界发泡（20.0 MPa，45°C，17 h）获得含丁香酚的聚（ε-己内酯）（PCL）支架，然后进行一步或两步降压程序。评估了丁香酚含量和降压程序对材料多孔结构和支架物理化学性质的影响。这两个加工参数的组合成功地同时调节了孔的连通性和喉道尺寸，以允许间充质干细胞渗透。含丁香酚的支架具有细胞相容性，表现出抗菌活性，可防止革兰氏阳性（金黄色葡萄球菌、表皮葡萄球菌）细菌的附着，并具有良好的组织整合性。
