Fabrication and characterization of PLLA scaffolds

Abstract

Studies on tissue engineering scaffolds have grown tremendously in recent years and various scaffold fabrication techniques have been explored extensively to produce scaffolds with desirable qualities. The requirements of a good scaffold include a high degree of porosity and pore interconnectivity. One popular and easy way is the solvent casting / particulate leaching method to produce polymeric scaffolds. However, while high porosity and controllable pore sizes could be achieved easily with this method, pore interconnectivity could not be assured. This project investigated the potential of producing scaffolds with improved pore interconnectivity through fusing the sodium chloride porogen under high humidity conditions.