Biodegradable polymer blends: miscibility, physicochemical properties and biological response of scaffolds

This review provides an overview of synthetic biodegradable polymer blends prepared for tissue engineering applications and aims at establishing structure-physicochemical-biological properties relationships. The characteristics of blends consisting of semi-crystalline/semi-crystalline and semi-crystalline/amorphous polymers are presented. Their biological properties such as degradability and biocompatibility and their biological performance as scaffolds in relation to cell adhesion, proliferation, infiltration, morphology and type are discussed. From available data, it can be deduced that miscibility influences physicochemical properties of the corresponding biodegradable polymeric blend scaffold, which in turn impacts on biological response. Immiscibility in polymer blends generally translates into good cell adhesion and proliferation. However, better cellular infiltration has been noted in compatible blends compared to immiscible blends. Factors such as crystallinity versus amorphous character, chirality, surface properties, degradation rate/products, mechanical properties and scaffold fabrication techniques are shown to have a major bearing on cell growth. (c) 2015 Society of Chemical Industry