Adhesion, proliferation and distribution of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) in Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds with different pore sizes

摘要

Tissue engineering, combining the use of biomaterials, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) and optimized culture medium formulations, is a very promising research field for tissue regeneration. This work is focused on the application of Poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds designed to have a spacing gradient between orthogonal fibres with diameters of 0.3 mm with pore sizes ranging from 190 to 390 μm. Human bone marrow (BM)-derived MSCs, were used to evaluate cell adhesion, proliferation and distribution within the scaffolds. Specifically, we hypothesized if seeding MSC in scaffold regions with different pore sizes would influence cell proliferation. Therefore, MSC were seeded at the centre of scaffolds with either larger (390 μm) or smaller pores (190 μm). Results obtained showed similar levels of adhesion and proliferation in both configurations, with fold increase in total cell number of 5 after 13 days of cultivation; which indicates that no limitation for cell proliferation within the range of pore sizes studied is observed.