Noninvasive biosensing 3D scaffold to monitor degradation: The potential of fluorescent PCL and PLGA for tissue engineering

Abstract The nondestructive localization and traceability of polymers by fluorescent tagging has become a valuable tool for biomedical applications. Integration of fluorescent molecule to the pristine polymers could modify polymers' degradation rate which is still unpredictable from a scaffold application standpoint. The current study focused to understand the material perspective of fluorescently tagged biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL) and poly ( d,l ‐lactide‐co‐glycolide) (PLGA) with fluorescein amine isomer I (FITC). PCL‐FITC and PLGA‐FITC were characterized using FTIR for surface chemistry analysis and rheology for their mechanical properties. The grafted materials were utilized to form 3‐dimentional scaffolds, and their degradation was monitored under accelerated degradation conditions triggered by pH. It was found that PCL and PCL‐FITC had a very slow degradation rate, when compared to PLGA and PLGA‐FITC. Both the FITC tagged materials displayed a faster degradation rate compared to their respective pristine material. Biocompatibility of the FITC conjugated polymers was tested using human‐adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs) revealing that the sub products from the degradation of the polymers over 7 days did not negatively affect the cellular metabolic activity. This work highlights the significance of initial characterization of fluorescent modified polymers for future biomedical application.