Synthesis and characterization of divinyl‐fumarate poly‐ε‐caprolactone for scaffolds with controlled architectures |
| |
| Authors: | Alfredo Ronca Sara Ronca Giuseppe Forte Stefania Zeppetelli Antonio Gloria Roberto De Santis Luigi Ambrosio |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Institute for Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, Naples, Italy;2. Department of Materials, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK;3. Department of Chemical Science and Materials Technology, National Research Council of Italy, Rome, Italy |
| |
| Abstract: | A vinyl‐terminated polycaprolactone has been developed for tissue engineering applications using a one‐step synthesis and functionalization method based on ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ε‐Caprolactone, with hydroxyl ethyl vinyl ether (HEVE) acting both as the initiator of ROP and as photo‐curable functional group. The proposed method employs a catalyst based on aluminium, instead of the most popular Tin(II) 2‐ethylhexanoate, to reduce the cytotoxicity. Following the synthesis of the vinyl‐terminated polycaprolactone, its reaction with fumaryl chloride (FuCl) results in a divinyl‐fumarate polycaprolactone (VPCLF). The polymers obtained were thoroughly characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) techniques. The polymer has been successfully employed, in combination with N‐vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP), to fabricate films and computer‐designed porous scaffolds by micro‐stereolithography (μ‐SL) with gyroid and diamond architectures. Characterization of the networks indicated the influence of NVP content on the network properties. Human mesenchymal stem cells adhered and spread onto VPCLF/NVP networks showing good biological properties and no cytotoxic effect. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
| |
| Keywords: | photocrosslinkable polymer polycaprolactone fumarate biocompatibility stereolithography cell– material interactions mathematically defined scaffold |
|
|
