Tubular perfusion system culture of human mesenchymal stem cells on poly-L-lactic acid scaffolds produced using a supercritical carbon dioxide-assisted process.

In vitro human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) proliferation and differentiation is dependent on scaffold design parameters and specific culture conditions. In this study, we investigate how scaffold microstructure influences hMSC behavior in a perfusion bioreactor system. Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) scaffolds are fabricated using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO(2)) gel drying. This production method results in scaffolds fabricated with nanostructure. To introduce a microporous structure, porogen leaching was used in addition to this technique to produce scaffolds of average pore size of 100, 250, and 500 µm. These scaffolds were then cultured in static culture in well plates or dynamic culture in the tubular perfusion system (TPS) bioreactor. Results indicated that hMSCs were able to attach and maintain viability on all scaffolds with higher proliferation in the 250 µm and 500 µm pore sizes of bioreactor cultured scaffolds and 100 µm pore size of statically cultured scaffolds. Osteoblastic differentiation was enhanced in TPS culture as compared to static culture with the highest alkaline phosphatase expression observed in the 250 µm pore size group. Bone morphogenetic protein-2 was also analyzed and expression levels were highest in the 250 µm and 500 µm pore size bioreactor cultured samples. These results demonstrate cellular response to pore size as well as the ability of dynamic culture to enhance these effects.