Plasma modification of porous scaffolds by means of plasma assisted processes

Polymers are commonly used in biomedical applications because of their excellent bulk properties, such as strength and good resistance to chemicals. However, their surface properties are for most biomedical applications inadequate due to their low surface energy. A surface modification is often needed, and plasma surface modification has been used with success in the past decades. A recent application of plasma processing is devoted to 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering [1,2]. In this field, the surface properties of porous scaffolds need to be altered to promote a good cell adhesion, growth and proliferation in order to make them suitable for implants and tissue regeneration. In this study, we utilized N2 and H2O vapor plasmas to modify PCL porous scaffolds and looked at their interaction with cells.