Preparation of porous organically-modified silicate hybrids cell culture matrix

Porous & rubbery organic-inorganic hybrids were synthesized from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) through a sol-gel route using sieved sucrose granules as a porogen. The porous hybrids with a high content of PDMS behaved like polymer sponge. The porosity was over 90% irrespective of the hybrid composition and the pore diameter ranged from 100 to 500 μm. In the three-dimensional cell culture, mammalian cells were well cultured in the porous hybrids. The present results indicate that the hybrids may be a promising scaffold for developing such functional culture methods.