Fabrication of biodegradable scaffolds by use of self-assembled magnetic sugar particles as a casting template

— Technologies to develop scaffolds with controlled pore layout and porosity have great significance in tissue engineering. As one method of scaffold fabrication, porogen leaching has been commonly used to control pore size, pore structure and porosity in the scaffold. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to fabricate 2D and 3D porous biodegradable scaffolds made of poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) by using magnetic sugar particles as porogens. First, ferrite micro/nano particles were encapsulated in sugar microspheres to make them magnetized. After sieving magnetic sugar particles, those diameter-controlled particles were attracted by a magnetic force to form an assembled template for polymer casting. A magnetic field with polka-dot pattern was also utilized to align particles on desired positions. After polymer casting and removal of the sugar template, spherical pores were generated inside scaffold. For future application in vascular tissue engineering, we extended the sc...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Tomoyuki Uchida, Hiroyuki Oura, Seiichi Ikeda, Fumihito Arai, Makoto Negoro, Toshio Fukuda
• Keywords: ICRA 2008, Magnetic Sugar Particles, Robotics, Scaffold, Scaffold Fabrication