Tissue engineering scaffold with controllable macropore-formation

Researchers in Dr. Fan Yang's lab have developed 3D tissue engineering scaffolds with dynamic, temporally and spatially controllable macropore formation. Macropores within tissue engineering scaffolds are important structures that promote tissue formation by facilitating diffusion, cell proliferation, migration, and extracellular matrix (ECM) production. Current methods for making macroporous scaffolds are limited in that fabrication conditions are too harsh for cell survival and thus cells can only be seeded onto prefabricated scaffolds. This leads to low seeding efficiency and non-uniform distribution. Current methods also lack step-wise temporally controllable dynamic macropore formation. To overcome these limitations the inventors developed this platform which uses stimuli-responsive porogens to facilitate dynamic formation of macropores in cell-laden scaffolds.

Supporting tissue generation by dynamic pore formation. A) Forming a hydrogel with multiple porogens, which encapsulate the cells; B) Removing porogen 1 to facilitate the transport of nutrient; C) removing porogen 2 to deliver cells and facilitate cell proliferation; and D) removing porogen 3 to further enhance cell proliferation and formation of ECM.

Stage of Research
The inventors have shown that sequential porogen removal led to significantly enhanced cell proliferation and ECM production compared to scaffolds with fixed macroporosity. Furthermore, they demonstrated that these porogens may also be used as cell-delivery vehicles for temporal cell release in 3D scaffolds.