Abstract: Abstract: Objective To evaluate the feasibility of a tissue-engineered novel intervertebral disc biphasic scaffold, which used poly (ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL), sodium alginate and chitosan as materials. Methods PCL was used as material of melt spinning preparation of oriented porous annular fibrosus (AF) scaffolds, and the hydrogel was injected into hollow AF central composite biphasic scaffolds. The size and porosity of the biphasic scaffolds were determined by stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The human umbilical cord stem cells were inoculated to the corresponding sites of scaffolds and cultured in vitro for 7 days. CCK-8 assay was used to assess cell proliferation. The compression modulus of the biphasic stent was measured. Results Stereomicroscope and SEM showed that the AF formed diamond-shaped porous structure, nucleus pulposus (NP) phase formed irregularity porous structure. AF and NP phase pore sizes were (225.6±3.9) μm and (205.5±5.2) μm respectively, and porosity rates were (74.17±0.39)% and (85.52±0.48)% respectively. SEM showed that cell adhesion to the rack surface and surrounding cells were secreted by extracellular matrix. Live/dead cell staining showed that the cells showed good activity on the scaffold without dead cells. CCK-8 proliferation assay showed that human umbilical cord stem cells showed good proliferative activity. In addition, biphasic scaffold showed impressive mechanical properties (173.24 ± 44.93) kPa. Conclusion The biomimetic biphasic disc stents prepared from polycaprolactone and hydrogels have good pore size, porosity and cell compatibility. Those materials’scaffolds are closely integrated with each other, have a three-dimensional good network structure, and are excellent mechanical properties. So it is an ideal vehicle for constructing intervertebral disc of tissue engineering.

Key words: tissue engineering, intervertebral disk, poly(?-caprolactone), sodium alginate, chitosan