Fabrication and Characterization of Alveolus-Like Scaffolds with Control of the Pore Architecture and Gas Permeability

Abstract

The micrometer scale sac-like alveoli are the most important and essential unit for gas exchange in the lung. Thus, design and fabrication of scaffolds for alveoli regeneration by tissue engineering approach should meet a few topography and functional requests such as large surface area, flexibility, and high gas permeability to their native counterpart. Testing the gas permeability of scaffolds through a fast and simple technique is also highly demanded to assist new scaffold development. This study fabricated alveolus-like scaffolds with regular pore shape, high pore connectivity, and high porosity produced by inverse opal technique alongside randomly distrusted porous scaffolds by salt leaching technique from two different materials (polyurethane and poly(L-lactic acid)). The scaffold surface was modified by immobilization of VEGF. A facile and new technique based on the bubble meter principle enabling to measure the gas permeability of porous scaffolds conveniently has been developed specifically. The cellular response of the scaffolds was assessed by culturing with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells and coculturing with lung epithelial NL20 and endothelial HUVECs. Our results showed that the newly designed gas permeability device provided rapid, nondestructive, reproducible, and accurate assessment of gas permeability of different scaffolds. The porous polyurethane scaffolds made by inverse opal method had much better gas permeability than other scaffolds used in this study. The cellular work indicated that with VEGF surface modification, polyurethane inverse opal scaffolds induced alveolus-like tissues and have promising application in lung tissue engineering.