Laboratory injection molder for the fabrication of polymeric porous poly-epsilon-caprolactone scaffolds for preliminary mesenchymal stem cells tissue engineering applications

This study presents a simple and rapid fabrication technique involving injection molding and particle leaching (IM/PL) to fabricate the porous scaffold for tissue engineering applications. Sodium Chloride (NaCl) and Sucrose are separately mixed with the poly-epsilon-caprolactone (PCL) granules using a screwed thermo-regulated extruder, then the biocompatible scaffolds are fabricated through injection molding. The micro/nano-structure of the samples and their different grade of porosity were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells are chosen for cell culture and Hoechst 33342 staining was used to verify the biocompatibility of the polymeric porous surfaces. We concluded that, by using the same fast solvent free injection/leaching process, the use of Sucrose as porogen, instead of NaCl, allowed the obtainment of biocompatible scaffolds with a higher grade of porosity with suitable cell adhesion capacity for tissue engineering purpose.