Preliminary study on the adhesion and proliferation of human osteoblasts on starch-based scaffolds

Up to today, several techniques have been used to produce biodegradable porous scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this work, a new technique based on extrusion by using blowing agents in combination with a 50:50 (wt.%) blend of starch/cellulose acetate (SCA) was studied. The results show that by using this technique it was possible to obtain scaffolds with 70% of porosity and a fully interconnected network of pores, with sizes ranging from 200 to 500 pm. After their production, the mechanical properties of these scaffolds were tested, presenting a compressive modulus of 124.6 +/- 27.2 MPa and a compressive strength of 8.0 +/- 0.9 MPa. These values are within the best found in the literature and show that by using this technique, it is possible to produce scaffolds that, from a mechanical standpoint, may be suitable for bone tissue engineering. Cell culturing experiments showed that cells were viable and that there were no signs of cellular death after 3 weeks of culture. Finally, biochemical assays demonstrate that cells maintained the osteogenic phenotype throughout the experiment and deposition of mineralized extracellular matrix could be detected. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.