Acrylic scaffolds with interconnected spherical pores and controlled hydrophilicity for tissue engineering

Polymer scaffolds are obtained in which the geometric characteristics (pore size, connectivity, porosity) and the physico-chemical properties of the resulting material can be controlled in an independent way. The interconnected porous structure was obtained using a template of sintered PMMA microspheres of controlled size. Copolymerization of hydrophobic ethyl acrylate and hydrophilic hydroxyethyl methacrylate comonomers took place in the free space of the template, different comonomer ratio gave rise to different hydrophilicity degrees of the material keeping the same pore architecture. The morphology of the resulting scaffolds was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the porosity of the material calculated, and the mechanical properties compared with those of the bulk (non porous) material of the same composition.