Unleashing the potential of supercritical fluids for polymer processing in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine

One of the major scientific challenges that tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) faces to move from benchtop to bedside regards biomaterials development, despite the latest advances in polymer processing technologies.A variety of scaffolds processing techniques have been developed and include solvent casting and particles leaching, compression molding and particle leaching, thermally induced phase separation, rapid prototyping, among others. Supercritical fluids appear as an interesting alternative to the conventional methods for processing biopolymers as they do not require the use of large amounts of organic solvents and the processes can be conducted at mild temperatures. However, this processing technique has only recently started to receive more attention from researchers. Different processing methods based on the use of supercritical carbon dioxide have been proposed for the creation of novel architectures based on natural and synthetic polymers and these will be unleashed in this paper.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights
► Natural based polymers are processed by a variety of different supercritical fluid technologies.
► 3D architectures to serve as scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are presented.
► Controlled release systems were prepared for delivery of growth factors which induce stem cell differentiation.
► Examples of scaffold processing, preparation of delivery systems, polymer cross-linking reactions and matrices drying are given.