Microstructure and mechanical properties of poly(L‐lactide) scaffolds fabricated by gelatin particle leaching method

Abstract

Biodegradable poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) scaffolds with well-controlled interconnected irregular pores were fabricated by a porogen leaching technique using gelatin particles as the porogen. The gelatin particles (280 -450 m) were bonded together through a treatment in a saturated water vapor condition at 70°C to form a 3-dimensional assembly in a mold. PLLA was dissolved in dioxane and was cast onto the gelatin assembly. The mixtures were then freeze-dried or dried at room temperature, followed by removal of the gelatin particles to yield the porous scaffolds. The microstructure of the scaffolds was characterized by scanning electron microscopy with respect to the pore shape, interpore connectivity, and pore wall morphology. Compression measurements revealed that scaffolds fabricated by freeze-drying exhibited better mechanical performance than those by room temperature dying. Along with the increase of the polymer concentration, the porosity of the scaffolds decreased whereas the compressive modulus increased. When the scaffolds were in a hydrated state, the compressive modulus decreased dramatically.

Design and preparation of μ‐bimodal porous scaffold for tissue engineering

“…PCL (M W 5 65 kDa, T m 5 59-648C, T g 5 2608C, and q 5 1.145 g/cm 3 ) and gelatin powder (type B, M W 5 40-50 kDa) were purchased from SigmaAldrich (Italy). Glycerol anhydrous with purity grade higher than 99.5% was purchased from Fluka (Italy) and used as plasticizer for the preparation of TG.…”

“…2 Furthermore, PL leads to a highly interconnected porosity with a drastic reduction of mechanical properties. 3 GF uses high-pressure gas processing to induce porosity formation into a polymeric matrix. The porosity and pore structure depend on the competition between gas bubble nucleation and growth and can be finely regulated by the selection of the blowing agent and processing parameters.…”

Bio-safe processing of polylactic-co-caprolactone and polylactic acid blends to fabricate fibrous porous scaffolds for in vitro mesenchymal stem cells adhesion and proliferation

“…In this work, the mechanical performance of the prepared scaffolds was assessed in the hydrated state to better simulate the biological conditions. The decrease of mechanical properties with the increase of scaffolds porosity and pore size has been reported for PLA scaffolds prepared by means of particulate leaching and tested in both dry and wet conditions [46,47]. The PLC scaffold is flexible and highly elastic, while its mechanical performance is significantly affected by the relative blend composition and fabrication technique.…”

Numerical investigation of the mechanical properties of the additive manufactured bone scaffolds fabricated by FDM: the effect of layer penetration and post-heating

“…There are various processing methods for producing bone scaffolds (Widmer and Mikos, 1998) from conventional ones like phase separation (Gao et al, 2003), emulsion freezedrying (Whang et al, 1995), gas foaming (Harris et al, 1998), fiber templates (Thomson et al, 1995) and porogen leaching (Mikos et al, 1993;Zhou et al, 2005) to additive manufacturing (AM) techniques (Hutmacher, 2000;Moroni et al, 2006). Over the past decades, due to the possibility of fabricating complex microstructures with controllable pore shape and size, AM techniques have been widely utilized for fabrication of bone scaffolds.…”