Study of in vitro degradation of biodegradable polymer based thin films and tissue engineering scaffolds

Abstract

This paper reports the in vitro degradation of three-dimensional, highly porous tissue engineering scaffolds and non-porous thin films based on poly (L-lactide) (PLLA) biopolymers. The tissue engineering scaffolds were produced through the emulsion freezing/freeze-drying technique. The nonporous thin films were produced using solvent casting technique. In vitro degradation experiments in terms of water uptake, water diffusion and weight loss were performed for various period of time. Results show that the scaffolds had more water uptake than the thin films at the same experimental condition. After 6 weeks, the weight loss of scaffolds was much greater than the films.

Key words: Tissue engineering, biodegradable polymers, scaffolds, uptake, weight loss.