Biodegradable HA-PLA 3-D porous scaffolds: Effect of nano-sized filler content on scaffold properties

✍ Scribed by Chandrasekhar R. Kothapalli; Montgomery T. Shaw; Mei Wei

• Book ID: 103999321
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 431 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1742-7061
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2005.06.005

✦ Synopsis

Scaffolds comprising poly(lactic acid) and nano-hydroxyapatite (HA) were prepared using the solvent-casting/salt-leaching technique. NaCl was used as the leaching agent. Nano-sized HA was synthesized by a hydrothermal method at 170 °C and autogenous pressure. High-resolution TEM imaging revealed that the HA particles were ellipsoidal-shaped with needle-like morphologies. The particles had an average size of approximately 25 nm in width and 150 nm in length with aspect ratios ranging from 6 to 8. As the HA content increased in the scaffold from 0 to 50 wt%, the compression modulus of the scaffolds increased from 4.72 ± 1.2 to 9.87 ± 1.8 MPa, while the yield strength from 0.29 ± 0.03 to 0.44 ± 0.01 MPa. Such polymeric scaffolds should be suitable materials for non-load sharing tissue-engineering applications.