Production and characterization of hybrid tissue scaffold approaches for 3D vascularized bone tissue engineering

In this dissertation, it is aimed to produce an electrospun hybrid scaffold for bone tissue engineering on which calcium phosphate (CaP) biomineralization has been formed. For this scope, fibrous tissue scaffolds were produced from gelatin and poly(caprolactone), and characterized. Afterwards, CaP biomineralization has been formed onto these fiber structures. In order to characterize tissue scaffolds, their fiber diameters, porosity, water contact angles, morphologies via light and scanning electron microscope, water absorption capacities, denaturation temperatures, mass loss ratios by thermo-gravimetric analysis, crystal structures via XRD, and CaP ratios via EDS have been analyzed. In addition to those, in order to make gelatin insoluble in water, whole electrospun scaffolds that have gelatin were cross-linked by glutaric dialdehyde vapor. To demonstrate the success of cross-linking, SEM, FT-IR, DTA and DSC analyses were used. CaP biomineralization has been achieved by incubating electrospun tissue scaffolds in simulated body fluid (SBF) that has same ionic concentration with human blood plasma. Biomineralization was demonstrated by SEM, EDS, FT-IR, and XRD. As a result, a hybrid tissue scaffold for bone tissue engineering has been produced successfully.