Studying the Nanofibrous Structure of Polycaprolactone Scaffold via Image Processing Technique

Tissue engineered scaffold requires porous structure with the controlled pore size to host tissue formation. For porosity evaluation, different high resolution image based methods have been proposed to monitor structural and morphological features of the constructs. In this study, polycaprolactone and poly ethylene oxide (PEO) scaffold fabricated by electrospinning method as a rather simple and cost effective approach. These nanofibrous hybrid scaffolds studied via image processing techniques. Eventually, by manipulating poly ethylene oxide (PEO) in electrospinning, PEO fibers perform as sacrificial removable agent to affect the porosity of scaffold. Concentration of PEO solution (10, 7.5 and 5% wt) played a critical role in production of the number of pores and pore size. The optimum pore size beside the possible maximum number of pores achieved in 7.5% wt concentration of PEO while higher concentration of PEO solutions, showed less number of pores with higher average pore size which is attributed to instabilities or discontinuities during electrospinning. Beside parameters about polymer solution, variations in the ambience could also alter the structural parameters of the electrospun layer, which porosity is here of interest.