Preparation of polycaprolactone tissue engineering scaffolds by improved solvent casting/particulate leaching method

The classic solvent casting/particulate leaching method to fabricate PCL scaffolds was improved by using a centrifugal technology, a direct bonding process in preparing salt matrices and a technology of vacuum treatment under heating in the desolvation process. Series operations of preshaping, centrifuging, casting and desolvating were employed during the scaffold's manufacture. The scaffold's properties were characterized including micro-structures, pore dimensions, porosity and hydrophilicity. The results show that centrifugal technology can improve the pore uniformity of scaffolds. In the bonding process, well-interconnected porous structures were formed if water content was between 2 similar to 7%. The distribution of pore dimensions was from 10 to 80 mu m, and the porosities were about 89%. Generally, the porosities formed by vacuum treatment at high temperature are greater than those formed by vacuum treatment at ambient temperature in the desolvation process. The fabricated porous PCL scaffolds with good elasticity and desired thickness could be a good choice for application in soft tissue engineering.