Microbeads for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Drug Delivery in Freeze-Cast Scaffolds

Overview

Freeze casting, the controlled unidirectional solidification of water-based solutions and slurries, is a new technique for the fabrication of tissue scaffolds with highly aligned porosity and guiding features for use as conduits for the regeneration of peripheral nerves. Growth factors, which are known to play a critical role in the regulation of regenerative cell growth, can be incorporated into these scaffolds during their manufacture, because freeze casting is a cold process. Polymeric microbeads, which can be frozen into the scaffold architecture without altering it, are a means for the controlled delivery of such growth factors. The focus of this study is the manufacture of alginate microbeads using microfluidics to determine whether release differs between scaffolds into which the growth factor is loaded directly and those into which the growth factor is incorporated using microcapsules. Presented will be effects of processing conditions on microbead size and geometry, their microstructural features before and after freezing and freeze drying, and patterns of microbead distribution within the freeze-cast tissue scaffolds as determined by optical, scanning electron, and confocal microscopy.

Competition history

• AJAS 2019 Category not listed

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