Developing highly porous collagen scaffolds by using alginate microsphere porogens for stem cell cultures

Abstract A highly porous scaffold with tunable pore sizes is desirable and beneficial to facilitate the migration, spreading, and proliferation of cells in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. In this study, porous collagen scaffolds with various pore sizes were prepared using alginate microspheres as porogen materials. The collagen scaffolds had high water content (up to 98%), various porosities and degradation behaviors, and well connected pore structures. A maximum pore size of 700 μm was obtained; in contrary, the intact porous structures of the scaffolds could not be maintained using Al 2 O 3 beads or polystyrene bead porogens. The stress of the collagen scaffolds ranged from 0.29 to 0.43 kPa. In vitro studies indicated that seeded rat mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) were able to attach, spread, and proliferate on the scaffold surfaces. Furthermore, the human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) proliferated preferentially across the largest pore areas after 14 days of culturing.