TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of Porous and Flexible PTMC Membranes for In Vitro Organ Models Fabricated by Evaporation-Induced Phase Separation
AU - Pasman, Thijs
AU - Baptista, Danielle
AU - van Riet, Sander
AU - Truckenmuller, Roman K.
AU - Hiemstra, Pieter S.
AU - Rottier, Robbert J.
AU - Stamatialis, Dimitrios
AU - Poot, Andre A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by The Lung Foundation Netherlands, grant number 6.1.14.010.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - Polymeric membranes are widely applied in biomedical applications, including in vitro organ models. In such models, they are mostly used as supports on which cells are cultured to create functional tissue units of the desired organ. To this end, the membrane properties, e.g., morphology and porosity, should match the tissue properties. Organ models of dynamic (barrier) tissues, e.g., lung, require flexible, elastic and porous membranes. Thus, membranes based on poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) are often applied, which are flexible and elastic. However, PDMS has low cell adhesive properties and displays small molecule ad- and absorption. Furthermore, the introduction of porosity in these membranes requires elaborate methods. In this work, we aim to develop porous membranes for organ models based on poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC): a flexible polymer with good cell adhesive properties which has been used for tissue engineering scaffolds, but not in in vitro organ models. For developing these membranes, we applied evaporation-induced phase separation (EIPS), a new method in this field based on solvent evaporation initiating phase separation, followed by membrane photo-crosslinking. We optimised various processing variables for obtaining form-stable PTMC membranes with average pore sizes between 5 to 8 mu m and water permeance in the microfiltration range (17,000-41,000 L/m(2)/h/bar). Importantly, the membranes are flexible and are suitable for implementation in in vitro organ models.
AB - Polymeric membranes are widely applied in biomedical applications, including in vitro organ models. In such models, they are mostly used as supports on which cells are cultured to create functional tissue units of the desired organ. To this end, the membrane properties, e.g., morphology and porosity, should match the tissue properties. Organ models of dynamic (barrier) tissues, e.g., lung, require flexible, elastic and porous membranes. Thus, membranes based on poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) are often applied, which are flexible and elastic. However, PDMS has low cell adhesive properties and displays small molecule ad- and absorption. Furthermore, the introduction of porosity in these membranes requires elaborate methods. In this work, we aim to develop porous membranes for organ models based on poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC): a flexible polymer with good cell adhesive properties which has been used for tissue engineering scaffolds, but not in in vitro organ models. For developing these membranes, we applied evaporation-induced phase separation (EIPS), a new method in this field based on solvent evaporation initiating phase separation, followed by membrane photo-crosslinking. We optimised various processing variables for obtaining form-stable PTMC membranes with average pore sizes between 5 to 8 mu m and water permeance in the microfiltration range (17,000-41,000 L/m(2)/h/bar). Importantly, the membranes are flexible and are suitable for implementation in in vitro organ models.
KW - membranes
KW - poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC)
KW - evaporation-induced phase separation (EIPS)
KW - photo-crosslinking
KW - in vitro organ models
KW - POLY(TRIMETHYLENE CARBONATE) SCAFFOLDS
KW - SMOOTH-MUSCLE-CELLS
KW - 1,3-TRIMETHYLENE CARBONATE
KW - TRIMETHYLENE CARBONATE
KW - EPSILON-CAPROLACTONE
KW - CROSS-LINKING
KW - MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES
KW - D,L-LACTIDE
KW - ABSORPTION
KW - COPOLYMERS
U2 - 10.3390/membranes10110330
DO - 10.3390/membranes10110330
M3 - Article
C2 - 33167539
SN - 2077-0375
VL - 10
JO - Membranes
JF - Membranes
IS - 11
M1 - 330
ER -