Laleh Safinia

Surface Modification of Polymer Constructs for Tissue Engineering: Polymer Scaffold Modification and Characterisation for Tissue Engineering Applications Laleh Safinia

One of the major issues in tissue engineering is the seeding of mammalian cells onto natural or synthetic scaffolds, to which the cells should attach and colonise into three-dimensional (3D) orientation, defining the shape of the tissue. The structural and surface properties of the biomaterials used to make the scaffolds, such as pore structure, hydrophilicity and surface charge are therefore important parameters to consider, if they are to be used as supportive 3D matrices for cells, providing a strong mechanical contact between the cells and the scaffold. In this work, a variety of synthetic polymer scaffolds was fabricated via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) followed by freeze-drying. The polymers under study were two biodegradable polyesters, poly (D, L-lactide) (PDLLA) and poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and two non-biodegradable polymers, polystyrene (PS) and polyurethane (PU). For the design and reproducible fabrication of polymer scaffolds, tailored for directed tissue growth, pore structure and surface chemistry of the selected polymer scaffolds were studied.