The effect of salt fusion processing variables on structural, physicochemical and biological properties of poly(glycerol sebacate) scaffolds

Poly(glycerol sebacate), PGS, is a biodegradable elastomer recently proposed in the form of scaffolds for cardiac, vascular, cartilage or neural applications. In the present work, several processing variables for the fabrication of PGS scaffolds by the salt fusion method were systematically studied, namely the pre-polymer/porogen ratio, the salt particles average size, use of tetrahydrofuran to dissolve the pre-polymer for its injection in the porogen template, and the curing pressure. The effect of these variables on their structural, mechanical and biological properties was assessed to select those leading to optimal ones in terms of their potential performance in tissue engineering applications. [GRAPHICS] .