Preparation of PLGA/β-TCP composite scaffolds with supercritical CO 2 foaming technique

Abstract

A high porosity scaffold with suitable compressive strength prepared by a gentle method has become a pressing need. To meet this demand, poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) were designed to prepare composite scaffolds by the supercritical technique. The preparation process consisted of three units: the mixing of PLGA and β-TCP, compression molding of the mixture, and the foaming process. Six influencing factors — temperature, pressure of the scCO₂ system, maintaining time of scCO₂, the ratio of β-TCP to PLGA, the rate of depressurization, and the molecular weight — were investigated. The results collectively indicated that the optimized conditions for the foaming process were that CO₂ pressure and temperature be 8MPa and 39°C, respectively, which should be kept for 8h; the content of β-TCP in the mixture should be 25% and the depressurizing rate be 0.1 MPa/s, using PLGA of an 80kDa molecular weight. Scaffolds with a porosity of 65.47% and a compressive strength of 4.76 MPa could be obtained. The pore size ranged around 100 µm. The material’s use as tissue engineering scaffolding is expected.

Keywords

scaffold / poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) / β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) / supercritical CO2 foaming technique