Parylene-Based Porous Scaffold with Functionalized Encapsulation of Platelet-Rich Plasma and Living Stem Cells for Tissue Engineering Applications

A scaffold was fabricated to synergistically encapsulate living human adipose-derived stem cells (hASCs) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) based on a vapor-phase sublimation and deposition process. During the process, ice templates were prepared using sterile water as the solvent and were used to accommodate the sensitive living cells and PRP molecules. Under controlled processing conditions, the ice templates underwent vapor sublimation to evaporate water molecules, while at the same time, vapor-phase deposition of poly-p-xylylene (Parylene, USP Class VI highly biocompatible) occurred to replace the templates, and the final construction yielded a scaffold with Parylene as the matrix, with simultaneously encapsulated living hASCs and PRP molecules. Evaluation of the fabricated synergistic scaffold for the proliferation activities toward the encapsulated hASCs indicated significant augmentation of cell proliferation contributed by the PRP ingredients. In addition, osteogenic activity in the early stage by alkaline phosphatase expression and later stage with calcium mineralization indicated significant enhancement toward osteogenetic differentiation of the encapsulated hASCs, which were guided by the PRP molecules. By contrast, examinations of adipogenic activity by lipid droplet formation revealed an inhibition of adipogenesis with decreased intracellular lipid accumulation, and a statistically significant downregulation of adipogenic differentiation was postulated for the scaffold products when compared to the osteogenetic results and the control experiments. The reported fabrication method featured a clean and simple process to construct scaffolds that combined delicate living hASCs and PRP molecules inside the structure. The resultant synergistic scaffold and the selected commercially available hASCs and PRP are emerging as tissue engineering tools that provide multifunctionality for tissue repair and regeneration.