Biodegradable poly(lactic acid)/hydroxyl apatite 3D porous scaffolds using high-pressure molding and salt leaching

Scaffolds comprising poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and hydroxyl apatite (HA) were fabricated by combination of the high-pressure compression-molding plus salt-leaching techniques. The optimized HA content was determined in terms of the pore morphology, porosity, storage modulus, degradation behavior, hydrophilicity as well as the cell growth ability of the scaffolds. At HA content of 20 wt%, the scaffolds exhibited an interconnected open pore structure with the high porosity of 82.2 %. More importantly, the storage modulus of PLA/HA scaffolds (87.6 MPa) achieved almost three times higher compared with pure PLA scaffolds, while under low-pressure condition, the increase of modulus caused by HA does not reach 150 %. The obvious contrast indicated that HA and high pressure had a synergistic effect on enhancing mechanical properties of porous scaffolds. It was truly interesting that the hydrophilicity of PLA/HA scaffolds was significantly improved by alkaline hydrolysis treatment, which eventually led to the excellent cellular biocompatibility of the scaffolds, as revealed from the morphology and spreading of the cells cultured in our scaffolds. On the whole, the resultant PLA/HA scaffolds are well-suited candidates for the design of tailor-made matrices in tissue engineering.