Facile fabrication of highly interconnected poly(lactic acid)‐based scaffolds with good hydrophilicity using supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

AbstractHighly interconnected poly(lactic acid) (PLA)‐based foams are extensively utilized to be candidate porous scaffolds in the field of tissue engineering. Nonetheless, it remains challenging about the preparation of highly porous, interconnected and hydrophilic PLA‐based scaffolds through a facile and cheap method. The present work synthesized PLA‐based scaffolds with high porosity through supercritical carbon dioxide (sc‐CO2) foaming strategy. For improving PLA foam interconnection as well as hydrophilicity, poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were chosen to be excellent additives for PLA blending. PEG acted as a compatibilizer between PLA and PBS, which enhanced open cell structure generation by decreasing melt viscosity. According to investigation of PBS and PEG content as well as foaming temperature, PLA/PBS/PEG(90/10/10) blend foaming under 100°C had the greatest open cell rate of 95.9% and high volume expansion ratio of 13.98, meanwhile, its water contact angle reduced to 62.5°. In addition, the fibroblast NIH/3T3 cells with live/dead cell fluorescence staining assay was utilized to examine the biocompatibility of PLA‐based scaffolds. Results indicated that the PLA/PBS/PEG scaffolds had better biocompatibility than PLA/PBS scaffolds. This work provides an easy and green approach for fabricating fully biodegradable PLA‐based scaffolds with high open cell rate and hydrophilicity in tissue engineering.