On the Use of Gamma Radiation to Change the Characteristics of Porous Poly(caprolactone) Tissue Scaffolds

Abstract

Optimizing the structural of porous tissue scaffolds to maximize their performance in tissue engineering applications is difficult and time-consuming. The interdependence of different processing parameters means that it is difficult to optimize the properties of the scaffolds during manufacture. The authors report a simple method of changing the permeability of polycaprolactone scaffolds through controlled exposure to gamma radiation. 30 kGy of gamma radiation increases the permeability of water and bovine serum albumin through the scaffolds by approximately 80%. The authors also demonstrate that performance measures can detect subtle changes in complex structures that are difficult to detect using SEM.

Keywords:

• Darcy's law
• irradiation
• permeability
• poly(caprolactone)
• porosity
• porous
• tissue scaffold

Acknowledgment

This work was funded by the United Kingdom Department of Trade and Industry as part of the Measurements for Processing programme (Project A2: Engineering of functional tissue and the development of noninvasive techniques for monitoring cell population dynamics in seeded tissue scaffolds). The authors would like to thank Professor Alan Coombes, University of Queensland, for supplying the PCL tubular scaffolds and Sam Ganiah, NPL, for carrying out the DSC measurements.

Notes

¹Length in this context refers to the wall thickness