Polyurethane biomaterials for fabricating 3D porous scaffolds and supporting vascular cells

Successful tissue engineering of vascular grafts largely depends on synthetic scaffolds that support the survival, proliferation, and differentiation of seeded cells. To investigate the utility of polyurethanes for vascular tissue engineering, three-dimensional porous polyurethane scaffolds with highly interconnected pore structures were fabricated by a pressure differential/particulate leaching technique. Ammonium chloride and paraffin porogens were prepared to fabricate the scaffolds. Grinding of ammonium chloride resulted in particulates with uniform particle sizes but irregular shapes. Paraffin particulates made by a dispersion method, on the other hand, had spherical shapes and uniform particle sizes. Polyurethane scaffolds fabricated from these particulates had open faced, highly interconnected channels that could allow cellular infiltration and nutrient delivery. Human coronary artery smooth muscle and endothelial cell interactions with polyurethane surfaces revealed these biomaterials to maintain the contractile phenotype of human coronary artery smooth muscle cells and the formation of endothelial monolayers. During longer culture times, surface modification with cell adhesive extracellular matrix (ECM) protein promoted vascular cell proliferation, maintenance of the differentiated phenotype and endothelial monolayer integrity. Our results suggest that these polyurethanes, in conjunction with cell adhesive ECM proteins, could also support vascular cells in three-dimensional bioreactor-based culture conditions.