Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Bone Marrow Cell Colonization Of, And Extracellular Matrix Expression On, Biodegradable Polymers, C. E. Holy, M. S. Shoichet, J. E. Davies

Cells and Materials

Poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide)s (PLGAs) have been proposed as substrata for bone tissue engineering. In the experiments reported herein, we sought to identify the optimum lactide to glycolide ratio, from the series 85:15, 75:25, 50:50, or poly-(DL-lactide) (PLA), for the elaboration of bone matrix by cultured rat bone marrow cells (RBMC) on two-dimensional substrates. Having identified PLGA 75:25 as the optimum for bone matrix elaboration by RBMC, we produced three dimensional foams from this copolymer. For the two dimensional substrata, glass coverslips were spin-coated with one of the PLGAs, or PLA. Cultures were maintained for two weeks. We employed a new technique to …