Polycaprolactone-based Electrospun Composites in Bone Tissue Engineering

Natural bone tissue defects are caused by fractures and aging. The subject of tissue engineering has been raised and developed due to long-term self-healing processes or the lack of regeneration in severe injuries. The most important factors in successful tissue engineering are the selection of suitable cells and scaffolds. Various cells such as osteoblast, embryonic and mesenchymal stem cells are used, but the unique properties of mesenchymal cells have led to extensive application in the tissue engineering. Electrospinning is the one among several techniques to obtain scaffolds. In electrospinning method, because of the similarity of nanofibers with the extracellular matrix of the native tissue, the choice of different materials, the high surface area/volume ratio and the reconstruction of the tissue more than other methods have been considered. Polycaprolactone is a synthetic biopolymer that is widely employed in medical applications. The most important advantages of this polymer are high mechanical strength, simple processability, low toxicity, low immunogenicity. Mainly, the polymers are combined with ceramics to achieve the desired mechanical properties. Bone tissue engineering scaffolds should be biocompatible, biodegradable, high strength, porous, micro-scale pore size, and have smooth, uniform and free-bead morphology. Surface roughness and hydrophilicity of a membrane facilitates cellular behavior. The purpose of this research was the characterization and evaluation of polyacroplactone-based electrospinning scaffolds for bone tissue repair.