Gas-Foamed Scaffold Gradients for Combinatorial Screening in 3D

Published

May 1, 2012

Author(s)

Carl G. Simon Jr., Kaushik Chatterjee, Alison M. Kraigsley, Joachim Kohn, Durgadas Bolikal

Abstract

Current methods for screening cell-material interactions typically utilize two-dimensional (2D) culture format where cells are cultured on flat surfaces. However, there is a need for combinatorial and high-throughput screening methods to systematically screen cell-biomaterial interactions in three-dimensional (3D) tissue scaffolds for tissue engineering. Previously, we developed a two-syringe pump approach for making 3D scaffold gradients for use in combinatorial screening and these scaffold gradients were made by a salt-leaching method. Herein, we demonstrate that the two-syringe pump approach can also be used to create scaffold gradients using a gas-foaming approach. Macroporous foams prepared by a gas-foaming technique are commonly used for fabrication of tissue engineering scaffolds due to their high interconnectivity and good mechanical properties. Gas-foamed scaffold gradient libraries were fabricated from two biodegradable tyrosine-derived polycarbonates: poly(desaminotyrosyl-tyrosine ethyl ester carbonate) (pDTEc) and poly(desaminotyrosyl-tyrosine octyl ester carbonate) (pDTOc). The composition of the libraries was assessed with FTIR and showed that pDTEc/pDTOc gas-foamed scaffold gradients could be repeatably fabricated. Scanning electron microscopy showed that scaffold morphology was similar between the pDTEc-rich ends and the pDTOc-rich ends of the gradient. These results introduce a method for fabricating gas-foamed polymer scaffold gradients that can be used for combinatorial screening of cell-material interactions in 3D.

Citation

Journal of Biomaterials Science Polymer Edition

Volume

3

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

cell-material interactions, combinatorial screening, polymer, scaffold, tissue engineering

Citation

Simon, C. , Chatterjee, K. , Kraigsley, A. , , J. and Bolikal, D. (2012), Gas-Foamed Scaffold Gradients for Combinatorial Screening in 3D, Journal of Biomaterials Science Polymer Edition (Accessed October 12, 2025)