To date, special interest has been paid to composite scaffolds based on polymers enriched with hydroxyapatite (HA). However, the role of HA containing different trace elements such as silicate in the structure of a polymer scaffold has not yet been fully explored. Here, we report the potential use of silicate-containing hydroxyapatite (SiHA) microparticles and microparticle aggregates in the predominant range from 2.23 to 12.40 µm in combination with polycaprolactone (PCL) as a hybrid scaffold with randomly oriented and well-aligned microfibers for regeneration of bone tissue. Chemical and mechanical properties of the developed 3D scaffolds were investigated with XRD, FTIR, EDX and tensile testing. Furthermore, the internal structure and surface morphology of the scaffolds were analyzed using synchrotron X-ray µCT and SEM. Upon culturing human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) on PCL-SiHA scaffolds, we found that both SiHA inclusion and microfiber orientation affected cell adhesion. The best hMSCs viability was revealed at 10 day for the PCL-SiHA scaffolds with well-aligned structure (~82%). It is expected that novel hybrid scaffolds of PCL will improve tissue ingrowth in vivo due to hydrophilic SiHA microparticles in combination with randomly oriented and well-aligned PCL microfibers, which mimic the structure of extracellular matrix of bone tissue.
3 June 2020 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition
A transformation of fluxional into configurationally stable axially chiral N‐arylpyrroles was achieved with a highly atroposelective electrophilic aromatic substitution catalyzed by a chiral‐at‐metal rhodium Lewis acid. Specifically, N‐arylpyrroles were alkylated with N‐acryloyl‐1H‐pyrazole electrophiles in up to 93 % yield and with up to >99.5 % ee, and follow‐up conversions reveal the synthetic utility of this new method. DFT calculations elucidate the origins of the observed excellent atroposelectivity.