Scaffold Pore Size, Cell Infiltration & Vascularization

A biodegradable tissue-engineering scaffold only works if its pore network is the right size. This simulation seeds a porous 3D scaffold with progenitor cells at the surface and lets them migrate inward pore by pore while capillary sprouts try to follow. Drag the pore-size slider to see the two failure modes and the working window: pores too small trap cells at the surface and starve the core of oxygen; pores too large let cells wander in but leave too little surface for them to organize into tissue; and a middle range lets cells and new blood vessels reach all the way to the core, producing viable tissue throughout. The side chart plots infiltration depth, vascularization and viable-tissue fraction against pore size, tracing the classic optimum-in-the-middle curve.