Characterization of porous poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) sponges fabricated by supercritical CO2 gas-foaming method as a scaffold for three-dimensional growth of Hep3B cells.

This study presents the application of the porous poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) sponges fabricated from an organic solvent free supercritical gas foaming technique. Two formulations of PLGA sponges with different co-polymer compositions (85:15 and 50:50) were fabricated as novel scaffolds to guide human hepatoma cell line, Hep3B cell growth in vitro. The PLGA sponges showed desirable biodegradability and exhibited uniform pore size distribution with moderate interconnectivity. It was observed in this study that cells cultured on PLGA sponges showed lower proliferation rate as compared to the control during 14 days of culture as measured by using total DNA and methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assays. However, the cells cultured on the sponges tended to aggregate to form cell islets which were able to express better hepatic functions. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) results showed that the cell-sponge constructs secreted 1.5-3.0 times more albumin than the control when normalized to cellular content. In a similar fashion, its detoxification ability was also predominantly higher than that of the control as indicated by the ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) results. By comparing the cells growing on the two formulations of PLGA sponges, it was found that the PLGA 85:15 sponge exhibited better conductive and desirable environment for hep3B cells as justified by better cell infiltration, higher proliferation and hepatic function than the PLGA 50:50 sponge.