Auxetic materials have a negative poisons ratio, and a number of native biological tissues are proposed to possess auxetic properties. One such tissue is annulus fibrosus (AF), the fibrous outer layers of the intervertebral disc (IVD). However, few studies to date have investigated the potential of these materials as tissue engineering scaffolds. Here we describe the potential of manually converted polyurethane (PU) foams as three dimensional cellular scaffolds for AF repair. Rat MSCs were seeded onto fibronectin coated auxetic foams at a cell density of 6.4 × 103 cells/mm3, and cultured for up to 3 weeks. Cell viability was assessed throughout culture and following culture scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to assess morphological characteristics. Histological assessment was performed to assess production of matrix proteins.Background
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