Microcrystalline cellulose as filler in polycaprolactone matrices

Abstract

Polycaprolactone is a biomaterial widely used for tissue engineering applications. However, its hydrophobicity hinders cell attachment and proliferation on its surface. In this study microcrystalline cellulose has been proposed as a functional filler for polycaprolactone matrices expected to improve these properties. Composite material samples containing 0, 2, 5, 10 and 20% w/w of microcrystalline cellulose have been manufactured by compression molding and evaluated in terms of their mechanical properties, swelling behavior, water contact angle values and sheep mesenchymal cells viability. The results confirm that the presence of the additive is able to increase the swelling ability of the material (the samples containing 20% w/w of additive are able to absorb an amount of water 6 times higher than the value for polycaprolactone ones), the Young’s modulus (from 224±14 MPa for polycaprolactone to 388±30 MPa for the composites containing 20% of microcrystalline cellulose) and the bioaffinity of polycaprolactone based composite materials.