DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID CONTINUOUS FLOW SALT LEACHING KIT FOR FABRICATION OF POLY(3-HYDROXYBUTYRIC ACID-CO-3-HYDROXYVALERATE) (PHBV) POROUS 3-D SCAFFOLD

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) that are synthesized from bacteria that are predominantly produced by microbial fermentation processes on organic waste, such as palm oil mill effluent (POME), olive oil and kitchen waste, contribute to a sustainable waste management. A great variety of materials from this family can be produced, however the application of PHAs in the production of scaffolds in tissue engineering has been mainly constrained to poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) due to its highly adjustable physico-chemical properties. One of the common methods in making the 3-D scaffolds is by performing solvent-casting particulate-leaching (SCPL) process, but this process requires a long period of soaking in water to extract the entire salt particle in the 3-D scaffolds. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a new method to the conventional method of salt leaching process via a highly efficient continuous flow leaching kit. The salt leaching process was carried out by (1) immersing the 3-D porous scaffolds in a fabricated static container containing tap water and (2) by allowing a pre-setting continuous flow rate of water. The concentration of sodium chloride (NaCl) was calculated periodically for both processes based on the salt standard calibration curve. The results showed that the exhaustive salt leaching of the conventional process occurred at 48 ± 5 hrs with the needs of changing the water twice a day. In contrast, the exhaustive salt leaching process via continuous flow leaching kit occurred at 40 ± 5 mins, 72 times faster than the conventional method ( p <0.05). Therefore, the salt leaching process using continuous flow leaching kit can be considered a highly efficient and time saving procedure as compared to the conventional method.