PCL scaffolds with collagen bioactivator for applications in Tissue Engineering

The need for human tissues is fundament in certain genetic diseases or accidents of everyday life, they are a primary source for public health. In recent years, to alleviate these effects there was an improvement in the development of tissue engineering, scaffolds or matrices, to support an adequate mechanical and biological environment necessary for the regeneration of damaged tissues. These scaffolds are structures allowing adhesion, differentiation, cell proliferation and the supply of nutrients for growing cells. This paper aims to obtain PCL scaffolds bioactivators, to use as support matrices for the development of human tissues, as PCL is a biomaterial widely used in the biomedical field, due to its biocompatibility, mechanical strength and biodegradability. However, this biomaterial is hydrophobic, which means that there are difficulties in cell adhesion. To solve this problem, a coating of PCL scaffolds with collagen was used, since collagen is a hydrophilic protein existing in the formation of various tissues, so improves cell adhesion. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.