Abstract
In this study, polycaprolactone (PCL) cylindrical scaffolds with gradually increasing pore size along the longitudinal direction were fabricated by the centrifugation and thermal fibril-bonding process. The fabricated PCL scaffold showed a gradual increasing pore size (from ∼90 to ∼400 μm) and porosity (from ∼80 to ∼97%) along the cylindrical axis. The pore size gradient PCL scaffold was used to investigate the effect of pore size on the chondrogenic differentiation of adipose stem cells (ASCs). From the in vitro culture of ASCs, it was observed that the scaffold section having a pore size range of 370-400 μm provided a more favorable environment for chondrogenic differentiation than other pore size groups. The pore size gradient scaffolds can be a good tool for the systematic study of determining optimum pore size ranges for a variety of stem cell differentiation to a specific cell type.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1948-1955 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Biomacromolecules |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 9 Aug 2010 |