Novel measurement of pressure inside a compliant vascular scaffold of PLCL

Dynamic environment, such as high pressure, shear force and cyclic beating, is the properties of the human artery. To overcome this harsh environment, scaffolds for human artery need high compliance and high burst strength. Bioreactor system has been developed to measure the mechanical properties, such as compliance and burst strength, of vascular scaffolds. To mimic the hemodynamic environment, we have designed a pulsatile bioreactor system. In particular, fluid mechanical theories and equations were applied to measure the real pressure inside vascular scaffolds, which characterize the compliance and strength of the scaffolds. The bioreactor system was used to measure the compliance of poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (PLCL), an elastic polymer, scaffolds. The compliance of a PLCL scaffold in 80∼120 mmHg was 0.753 (%mm/100 mmHg). The compliance of a PLCL scaffold ranged 0.722 to 0.989(%mm/100 mmHg). The possibility of measuring pressure inside vascular scaffolds in real time in vitro will provide the inspiration of enhancing properties of scaffold and will improve our investigation on the scaffold in vascular processes.