원심분리법을 이용한 다공 크기 구배를 가지는 알지네이트 지지체의 제조 및 분석

It is well recognized that the pore size of scaffolds plays an important role for tissue ingrowth and regeneration: different kinds of cells were shown to have different optimal pore size ranges in the scaffolds for effective cell growth. So, if the tissue scaffold with pore size gradient (i. e., the scaffold with gradually increasing pore sizes along one direction) can be prepared, it will be of particular interest for basic studies of the interaction between tissue cells and scaffolds since the effect of pore size can be examined in a single experiment using one scaffold (pore size gradient scaffold). In recent years, several techniques have been used to fabricate porous polymer scaffolds having 3-dimensional pore structure. However, it is not possible to fabricate scaffolds with pore size gradient from those techniques. In this study, we developed a new method to fabricate pore size gradient scaffolds by a simple centrifugation. We fabricated alginate cylindrical scaffolds with gradually increasing pore size (80~310 µm) along the longitudinal direction by the centrifugation method. In this method, the pore size ranges of the scaffold could be easily controlled by adjusting centrifugal force. The prepared alginate scaffolds were impregnated into 1 wt% chitosan solution to improve cell adhesiveness as well as mechanical strengths. This study demonstrate that the centrifugation method is a simple and effective method to prepare tissue scaffolds with controllable pore size ranges.