CHARACTERIZATION OF HARD AND SOFT POROUS MATERIALS AND TISSUE SCAFFOLDS

摘要

Porous structure of tissue scaffolds is essential to ensure normal cell functioning providing them with nutrients, oxygen and optimal growth conditions and removing waste products. Characterization of the porous structure of hard implants is less of a problem compared to soft polymer hydrogels. In this work the results of the evaluation of the porous structure of two polymers widely used as implants or scaffolds, polycaprolactone as a hard material and collagen based hydrogel as a soft material are presented. The characterization was carried out using electron, fluorescence and confocal microscopy, quartz crystal microbalance technique and diffusion of macro-molecules.