Fabrication and characterization of polycaprolactone scaffolds via electrohydrodynamic jet 3D printing for tendon tissue regeneratio

Tissue engineering has showed promising results in restoring diseased tendon tissue functions. In this thesis, a hybrid three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffold comprising an outer portion rolled from an electrohydrodynamic jet printed poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) fiber mesh, and an inner portion fabricated from uniaxial stretching of a heat-sealed PCL tube, was developed for tendon tissue engineering (TE) application. The 3D tendon scaffold included micrometer-scale fibrous bundles, interconnected spacing and geometric anisotropy along the scaffold length. In addition, the as-fabricated scaffold exhibited comparable mechanical properties to those of the human patellar tendon. Also, the scaffold degradation exhibited consistency between the weight loss and the decline of mechanical properties. Compared to the traditional electrospun scaffolds, human tenocytes cultured in the tendon scaffolds showed up-regulated cellular metabolism, cell alignment, and tendon-related gene expression. These results demonstrated the potential of mechanically-enhanced 3D fibrous scaffold for applications in tendon TE, with desired cell alignment and functional differentiation.