Bicontinuous Interconnected Porous Biomaterials for Tissue Engineering and Regeneration

Abstract

Biomaterials mimicking natural extracellular matrix are necessary to create an optimal microenvironment for cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation. These scaffolds must possess bicontinuous interconnected porosity to ensure the effective exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolic waste, which are crucial for developing functional tissues. Here, a novel bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion (BIJEL)-Integrated PORous Engineered System (BIPORES) is developed to confer bioinert synthetic polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) with unique bicontinuous interconnected porosity and surface topography. This platform is fabricated through controlled phase separation and interfacial stabilization of two continuous phases by nanoparticles. Functional validation using human mesenchymal stem cells, and human induced pluripotent stem cells-derived cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts, reveals outstanding cell attachment, growth, proliferation, and/or differentiation within tissue-scale BIPORES scaffolds. These findings indicate that bicontinuous interconnected porosity with negative Gaussian curvature in the BIPORES scaffolds plays a key role in organ-scale tissue engineering and regeneration.