Preparation and <i>In Vitro</i> Degradation of PLGA/HA Composite Fiber Scaffolds by Electrospinning

Abstract

The preparation of scaffolds consisted of a polymer composites with inorganic materials has received extensive attention in the field of tissue engineering recently.Electrospinning is a good method to obtain nano-scaled fibers from polymer solutions. In this paper ,we successfully prepared nanofibers of poly(lactide-co-glycolde) (PLGA)/hydroxyapatite(HA)by electrospinning.Their structure morphology and degradation behaviors were studied.The in vitro degradation of PLGA/ HA composite membranes was examined for up to 16 weeks in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.4) at 37°C. The results indicated that the surface of hybrid fibers was much coarser because of the introduction of HA nano-particles. The alkaline HA nano-particles inhibited the self-catalysis of PLGA during the degradation and slowed down the degradation rates of hybrid fibers.The introduction of hydroxyapatite component changed the hydrophilic/hydrophobic balance and, thus, influenced degradation behavior and mechanical properties of the composite membranes during degradation. The preliminary results show that comprehensive properties are well better on the hybrid scaffolds than pure scaffolds and PLGA/ HA bionanocomposites have the potential in tissue regeneration applications.