doi:10.3390/polym13193399engRen, JiongyuKohli, NupurSharma, VaibhavShakouri, TaleenKeskin-Erdogan, ZalikeSaifzadeh, SiamakBrierly, Gary I.Knowles, Jonathan C.Woodruff, Maria A.García-Gareta, ElenaPoly-e-Caprolactone/Fibrin-Alginate scaffold: a new Pro-Angiogenic composite biomaterial for the treatment of bone defectsART-2021-131314We hypothesized that a composite of 3D porous melt-electrowritten poly-ɛ-caprolactone (PCL) coated throughout with a porous and slowly biodegradable fibrin/alginate (FA) matrix would accelerate bone repair due to its angiogenic potential. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the open pore structure of the FA matrix was maintained in the PCL/FA composites. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry showed complete coverage of the PCL fibres by FA, and the PCL/FA crystallinity was decreased compared with PCL. In vitro cell work with osteoprogenitor cells showed that they preferentially bound to the FA component and proliferated on all scaffolds over 28 days. A chorioallantoic membrane assay showed more blood vessel infiltration into FA and PCL/FA compared with PCL, and a significantly higher number of bifurcation points for PCL/FA compared with both FA and PCL. Implantation into a rat cranial defect model followed by microcomputed tomography, histology, and immunohistochemistry after 4- and 12-weeks post operation showed fast early bone formation at week 4, with significantly higher bone formation for FA and PCL/FA compared with PCL. However, this phenomenon was not extrapolated to week 12. Therefore, for long-term bone regeneration, tuning of FA degradation to ensure syncing with new bone formation is likely necessary.2021http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/12133010.3390/polym13193399http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/121330oai:zaguan.unizar.es:121330Polymers 13, 19 (2021), 3399 [22 pp.]byhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess