| Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating clinical condition that affects approximately 2.5 million patients across the world with 130,000 new injures being reported each year. Advances in research have provided better understanding of the complex pathophysiology after spinal cord injury, but so far no effective treatment has been able to provide functional recovery. Utilizing principles of tissue engineering, incorporation of a tubular implant at site of injury has gained considerable attention in recent years. The mechanical strength of the tubular implant, proposed for incorporation at site of injury, is very important for efficacy of the implant. In this project we have fabricated different types of hollow fiber channels (HFCs) with a porous morphology using dip-coating and sub-critical CO2 process. The HFCs have been characterized, their mechanical properties have been tested in vitro and their degradation behaviour over time has been analyzed.;Among the different types of HFCs tested for mechanical properties, single layered, double layered and reverse porosity, presence of porosity gradient and its orientation plays an important role towards establishing the mechanical strength of the HFC. The porosity gradient results from the difference in pore sizes between the inner and the outer layer of the HFC. During our study we were able to satisfy two crucial parameters regarding the mechanical strength of the HFC. Firstly, it is important for the HFC to match its mechanical strength with that of spinal cord tissue and secondly, the ability of the HFC to possess optimal weight to avoid damage to the already injured tissue. Thus we were able to fabricate a tubular implant that has desired mechanical properties to be used after SCI. |
