The characterization of polylactic acid-Napier fibres as scaffolds for tissue engineering

The objective of this research is to develop a novel composite scaffold based on polylactic acid/Napier fillers (PLA-NF) with improved properties for use in cartilage tissue engineering applications. This composite scaffold was prepared via solvent casting and particulate leaching technique, using sodium chloride (NaCl) as the porogen material. The prepared composite scaffold was characterised using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques. The PLA/Napier composite scaffold was highly porous with the pore size of 70 to 200 μm. It was also shown that the porosity was approximately constant with increasing Napier content. Also, the Napier fillers were well distributed in the PLA based scaffolds caused to its improved interconnectivity and porosity character. From the results it can be concluded that introducing Napier fillers to PLA matrix can be considered beneficial for cartilage regeneration, cell attachment and extracellular matrix (ECM) production.