A study on the in vitro degradation of poly(L-lactide)/chitosan microspheres scaffolds

作者：Zhu Ning^*; Cooper David; Chen Xiong Biao; Niu Catherine Hui

来源：Frontiers of Materials Science, 2013, 7(1): 76-82.

DOI：10.1007/s11706-013-0188-6

• poly(L-lactide) (PLLA)
• chitosan
• scaffold
• degradation
• tissue engineering

Recent research shows that the addition of chitosan microspheres (CMs) to poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) can result in a composite scaffold material with improved biocompatibility and mechanical properties for tissue engineering applications. However, research regarding the influence of CMs on scaffold degradation is absent in the literature. This paper presents a study on the in vitro degradation of scaffolds made from PLLA with CMs. In this study, the PLLA/CMs scaffolds with a 25% ratio of CMs to PLLA were immersed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution at 37 degrees C for 8 weeks. The in vitro degradation of the scaffolds was investigated using microcomputed tomography (mu CT), weight loss analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Microstructure changes during degradation were monitored using mu CT. The mu CT results were consistent with the results obtained from Raman spectra and DSC analysis, which reflected that adding CMs into PLLA can decrease the degradation rate compared with pure PLLA scaffolds. The results suggest that PLLA/CMs scaffold degradation can be regulated and controlled to meet requirements imposed a given tissue engineering application.

• 出版日期2013-3