Study of Degradation of Scaffolds

Synthesized by Different Processes

For Bone Tissue Engineering
WHAT IS TISSUE ENGINEERING?

Tissue engineering is the use of a combination

of cells, engineering and materials methods, and
suitable biochemical and physicochemical factors to improve or
replace biological tissues and bones.
Tissue engineering involves the use of a scaffold for the formation
of new viable tissue or for growth of bones for a medical purpose.
What is a Scaffold in Bone Tissue
Engineering?
Scaffolds are materials that have been engineered to cause
desirable cellular interactions to contribute to the formation of new
functional tissues or bones for medical purposes.
They usually serve for at least one of the following purposes:
allow cell attachment and migration,
deliver and retain cells and biochemical factors,
enable diffusion of vital cell nutrients and expressed products,
exert certain mechanical and biological influences to modify the
behavior of the cell phase.
What are Scaffolds Used For?

There are several conditions in which injured bone may not be

capable of healing itself. In massive traumatic bone loss or primary
tumor resection the bone defect may exceed a critical size and will
not heal on its own alone.
In conventional method for healing of bone is done with the help of
screws and pins which are made up of metals and are not bio-
degradable so there is a need to be a surgery for removal of these
pins before the rust and become harmful.
So Biodegradable Scaffolds are synthesized which act as an
additional material to repair and heal the bone naturally.
Requirement Of A Scaffold

Basic requirements of a scaffold are:

It should be Biocompatible so that it not harmful for human use

It should be Biodegradable so no need for secondary surgeries.

It should be Porous- highly porous with interconnected pore networks to

facilitate nutrient and oxygen diffusion and waste removal
Materials Used For Synthesis of
Scaffolds
Poly-Lactic Acid (PLA): naturally occurring chemical which degrades to
form Lactic Acid and can be removed easily from human body.
Polycaprolactone(PCL): it is similar to that of PLA but its rate of degradation
is slower than that of PLA
Polyglycolic acid (PGA) : it is also similar to PLA and PCL but it has
degradation rate that is faster .
Methods To Sythesize Scaffolds

TIPS(thermally induced Phase Seperation)

Salt Leaching

Electrospinning
 TIPS-thermally Induced Phase
Separation
The TIPS phase separation procedure requires the use of a solvent
with a low melting point that is easy to sublime
For example, dioxane could be used to dissolve polylactic acid, then
phase separation is induced through the addition of a small quantity
of water: a polymer-rich and a polymer-poor phase are formed
Following cooling below the solvent melting point and some days of
vacuum-drying to sublime the solvent, a porous scaffold is obtained.
Salt/Particulate Leaching

One such technique is called salt leaching where salt crystals such as
NaCl (common table salt) are put into a mold and polymer is poured
over the salt, penetrating into all the small spaces left between the
salt crystals. The polymer is hardened and then the salt is removed
by dissolving it in a solvent (such as water or alcohol) which
washes/leaches the salt out.
And the Porous Scaffolds are obtained.
Comparison Of Scaffolds made by TIPS and
SALT LEACHING on basis of degradation
Conclusion

It can be observed that salt leached scaffold degraded much faster

than those which were synthesized with the TIPS method.
The degradation of TIPS based scaffolds was majorly in only one
axis while the degradation of Salt leached scaffolds was noticeably
in all the directions.
THANK YOU