Fabrication of 3D porous poly(lactic acid)-based composite scaffolds with tunable biodegradation for bone tissue engineering

Abstract Success of biomimetic scaffold relies on the comparability of its microarchitecture and physicochemical properties to the natural bone. However, porous scaffolds which simultaneously possessed excellent mechanical properties, favorable bioactivity and tunable biodegradation were rarely reported. Herein, to integrate the high stiffness of hydroxyapatite (HA), the formability of lignocellulose (LG), the processability of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and the bioactivity of sol-gel derived 58S bioactive glass (BG), poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based composite scaffolds were fabricated by a simple technique of combining the solvent casting/particulate leaching and sol-gel method. The resultant scaffolds showed well-defined interconnected porous structure with pore size of 200–400 μm and rough pore wall, which was reported to be potentially beneficial for cell adhesion and ingrowth. In addition, the mechanical properties were obviously improved by the reinforcements of LG, HA, and BG. In vitro biomineralization studies indicated the incorporation of BG significantly enhanced the bioactivity of composite scaffolds. Specially, the degradation rate of scaffolds could be easily regulated by adjusting the BG content to match the regeneration of new bone. The developed PLA-based composite scaffolds might have a great potential for bone regeneration.