Injectable, high modulus, and fatigue resistant composite scaffold for load-bearing soft tissue regeneration

High modulus, two-phase, bicontinuous scaffolds were prepared by photocross-linking an aqueous suspension of chondrocytes and N-methacrylate glycol chitosan with a hydrolyzable, hydrophobic, acrylated star-copolymer. Two acrylated star-copolymers were examined: poly(ε-caprolactone-co-d,l-lactide) (5446DLLACL) and poly(ε-caprolactone-co-trimethylene carbonate) (7030TMCCL). The scaffolds were assessed for injectability, two-phase interconnectivity, fatigue resistance, and long-term static culture behavior. The 7030TMCCL scaffolds demonstrated decreased moduli of 17% after 1 × 10(6) cycles at 30% strain and 5% after 56 days in culture, compared to the 5446DLLACL scaffolds, which exhibited decreases of 58 and 68%, respectively. The 7030TMCCL scaffolds accumulated more extracellular matrix after 56 days of culture (GAG: 20.1 ± 1, collagen: 35.5 ± 1.8 μg) compared to 5446DLLACL scaffolds (GAG: 13.2 ± 0.6, collagen: 6.2 ± 3.4 μg). Overall, the 7030TMCCL-based scaffolds were shown to be better suited for use as a load bearing soft tissue scaffold.