Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
increase in the modulus upon introduction of internetwork links
betweenthePUandPSnetworks.Morerecently,Cosgriff-Hernandez
et al
. reported the generation of a poly(ester urethane urea) poly-
HIPE using similar addition reactions.
57
In this study, a PCL pre-
polymer was synthesized by end-capping PCL triols with hexane
diisocyanate (HDI). During cure of the HIPE, the PCL prepolymer
reacted with water and an excess of HDI to form a poly(ester
urethane urea) network. Overall, these studies demonstrate the
feasibility and utility of generating polyHIPEs using polyaddition
reactions.
33.6 Conclusions and Outlook
The application of emulsion templating in the development of tis-
sue engineering scaffolds is a relatively new area of orthopedic
research. This chapter has focused on a review of polyHIPE scaf-
folds; however, the scientific developments reported above do not
exhaust the emulsion-based research efforts in tissue engineering.
For example, double emulsions have found great utility in the fab-
rication of drug-eluting microspheres. The preliminary investiga-
tions reviewed here indicate that these strategies have great poten-
tialtoimprovecurrentorthopedicscaffolddevelopment.Significant
advancementsarestillnecessarytorealizethefullpotentialofthese
novel scaffolds in clinical use. In particular, cellular differentiation,
proliferation,andmineralizedmatrixproductiononthesenewscaf-
folds must be established in both
in vitro
and
in vivo
environments.
The mechanical properties and rate of biodegradation are also key
material properties that will need to be explored in more depth.
Overall, these initial studies foreshadow a bright future through
the use of emulsion-templated scaffolds in bone reconstructive
strategies.
References
1. Q.P.Pham,
Tissue Eng.
,
12
(2006).
2.
Orthop.Res.Soc.Newslett.
,
18
(2005).
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