Electrospun Scaffolds Composed of Poly(L-lactic acid) and Hydroxyapatite

Abstract

Tissue engineering is an important emerging area for creating biological alternatives for harvested tissues, implants, and prostheses. Biocompatible and biodegradable polymeric materials are considered an important class of materials that can be used as scaffolds in tissue engineering applications. In this work, the system studied was nanocomposites of hydroxyapatite (HA) dispersed in a matrix of PLLA. Scaffolds have to present similar structure and also function as an artificial extracellular matrix for cell attachment and growth. Hydroxyapatite is a bioactive ceramic and has been used in applications of repairing bone tissue due to its biocompatibility and osteoconductivity. Poly(L- lactic acid) is a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer and has been used in different applications in the biomedical field. In this work, polymer solutions were prepared with different percentages of hydroxyapatite and porous membranes consisting of non-woven nanostructured fibers were obtained by electrospinning. The process parameters were: voltage of 13kV, flow rate of 0.5 ml/h and distance from the tip of the needle to the collector of 12 cm. By using these process parameter, fibrous membranes were obtained with different concentrations of HA (1.96, 4.76, 9 [wt %]). The morphology of the samples was observed by SEM and the characteristic physic-chemical were analyzed by XRF, XRD, DSC and FTIR.