The aim of this work was to study the effect of cryopreservation over the functionality of both 2D and 3D tissue engineered constructs and to compare the cel lular survival and metabolic activity of cells seeded, cu ltured and cryopreserved on them. Apart from evaluating the effect of cryopreservation on the cells cultured on to polymeric scaffolds, this work also intended to eva luate its effect over the scaffold/material itself. For this, several 3D porous scaffolds and 2D nonpor ous discs made of starch and poly(caprolactone) were se eded with goat bone marrow stem cells and cryopreserved for 7 days in liquid nitrogen. After this period, the sam ples were analyzed and compared to non-cryopreserved samples. The obtained results suggest that it is possible to maintain cell viability and scaffolds properties upon cryopreservation of tissue engineered constructs ba sed on starch scaffolds and goat bone marrow mesenchymal cells using standard cryopreservation methods. Also, this study tends to suggest that the greater porosity and interconnectivity of scaffolds favour the survival of construct’s cellular content during cryopreservatio n processes. These findings indicate that it might be possible to prepare off-the-shelf engineered tissue substitutes and preserve them in order to be immedi ately available upon patient’s need.
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