Designed hybrid scaffolds consisting of polycaprolactone microstrands and electrospun collagen-nanofibers for bone tissue regeneration

Biomedical scaffolds used in bone tissue engineering should have various properties including appropriate bioactivity, mechanical strength, and morphologically optimized pore structures. Collagen has been well known as a good biomaterial for various types of tissue regeneration, but its usage has been limited due to its low mechanical property and rapid degradation. In this work, a new hybrid scaffold consisting of polycaprolactone (PCL) and collagen is proposed for bone tissue regeneration. The PCL enhances the mechanical properties of the hybrid scaffold and controls the pore structure. Layered collagen nanofibers were used to enhance the initial cell attachment and proliferation. The results showed that the hybrid scaffold yielded better mechanical properties of pure PCL scaffold as well as enhanced biological activity than the pure PCL scaffold did. The effect of pore size on bone regeneration was investigated using two hybrid scaffolds with pore sizes of 200 +/- 20 and 300 +/- 27 pm. After post-seeding for 7 days, the cell proliferation with pore size, 200 +/- 20 pm, was greater than that with pore size, 300 +/- 27 pm, due to the high surface area of the scaffold. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 97B: 263-270, 2011.