Study of bovine articular chondrocytes on thin film polycaprolactone surfaces

In tissue engineering significant progress has been made in the development of biodegradable polymer scaffolds for tissue culture (see [1] for review). Applications for tissue growth and replacement using donor or animal cells are under investigation for a range of tissue types including; cardiac cells, neural tissue, tendon, bone and cartilage. A number of factors are important in achieving successfully engineered tissue such as; polymer type, surface chemistry, oxygenation, nutrient delivery and expression of extracellular proteins. It has also been shown in the field of microchip-cell devices that microstructure is critical to growth and alignment of many cell types.