One-pot porogen free method fabricated porous microsphere-aggregated 3D PCL scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds with interconnected, hierarchically structured pores, and biomimetic nanostructures are desirable for tissue engineering, where preparation with a facile and biocompatible strategy remains challenging. In the present work, an innovative porous microspheres-aggregated 3D PCL scaffold with macropores, micropores, and nanofibrous-like structures was fabricated through a one-pot thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) method without the use of any porogen or specific instruments. Importantly, the porosity, pore size, and mechanical properties of our scaffolds were tailorable through tuning of the polymer concentration. Interestingly, the bioactivity of our 3D PCL scaffolds was significantly improved, as abundant apatite-like layers were formed on the 3D porous scaffolds, while no obvious apatite was observed on the 2D flat PCL film. Moreover, the high surface area attributed to the hierarchical macro/micro/nanostructure enabled our 3D porous scaffold to serve as a drug delivery depot for sustained release of both small molecule drug (phenamil) and protein (BMP2). In addition to sustained drug release, the hierarchical structure and high mechanical properties also contribute to significantly improving BMP2-induced osteogenic differentiation. In summary, we developed a novel PCL porous scaffold through a facile, one-pot TIPS method and demonstrated its promising potential application in large bone defect repair.