Benign route for the modification and characterization of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) scaffolds for medicinal application

Abstract

Scaffolds fabricated from polymers have imprinted its wide applicability in the field of tissue engineering. The surface of electrospun poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers was modified to improve their compatibility with living medium. PLA film were treated with alkali solution to introduce carboxyl groups on the surface followed by covalent grafting of gelatin using Xtal Fluoro-E as coupling agent. The gelatin g-PLA polymer synthesized via 'graft-onto' method exhibit fascinating properties as studied by contact angle measurement, fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, water vapor transmission rate(WVTR), swelling studies and differential scanning calorimetry. The fabricated gelatin g-PLA scaffolds were further characterized to conduct the study on hydrolytic degradation, and extent of biodegradation at ambient temperature. It was observed from the in-vitro analysis that the gelatin g-PLA nanofiber (with hemolytic percentage, 0.56 6 0.13%) was cytocompatible with fibroblast cell and does not impair cell growth. The WVTR obtained for the electrospun mat around 2900 6 100 g/m 2 . 24 h signifies the optimal moist environment required for tissue engineering especially wound healing. Notably, many of these strategies resulted in porous hydrophilic scaffolds with human cell growth and proliferation for medical applications of various types. V C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 46056. INTRODCTIONPoly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most important biodegradable, biocompatible, environment-friendly, and recyclable thermoplastic polyester with extensive biomedical applications. 1 However, due to the hydrophobic nature of the PLA, cell adhesion is not possible in a straight forward way. 2 The most convenient method to improve the cytocompatibility is by grafting PLA with some hydrophilic and bio-compatible components, such as chitosan, 3 gelatin, 4 alginate, 5 RGD peptide, 6 arginine, 7 lysine, PEG, 8 collagen and other extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. In order to increase the cytocompatibility of PLA, modifications can be done by several processes such as polymerization grafting, 9 oxygen plasma modification, 10 hydrolysis, 11 entrapment, 12 aminolysis, 13 and so on. The employment of ECM proteins or RGD peptide for surface coating of PLA is one of the facile and favorable method to achieve cytocompatibility. Alternatively, the feasibility of swollen PLA surface entrapped with bio macro-molecules, such as chitosan, gelatin, and poly(L-lysine) increases when exposed to the solvent/non-solvent mixture, where most of the solvents for PLA are nonbiocompatible.Alkaline hydrolysis is one of the efficient and common pretreatment method to create active functional group on PLA backbone. 14 Most promising outcome has been established on treatment of the natural fibers with alkaline solution (e.g., with 2% sodium hydroxide aqueous solution). The improvement in the surface hydrophilicity can be confirmed by the decreasing contact angle of ...

Surface Modification of 3D Printed PLA Objects by Fused Deposition Modeling: A Review

“…Prolonged cell viability was seen on such surfaces [74]. The PLA film was first treated with an alkaline solution to form the carboxyl groups on the surface and then inoculated the Xtal Fluoro-E gelatin onto it giving a hydrophilic surface [75]. A method was proposed for the immobilization of simple molecules on the PLA surface to prevent its degradation.…”

Sterilization of PAN/Gelatine Nanofibrous Mats for Cell Growth

“…Since the exact distribution of both components in fi bres has not been investigated yet, the infl uence of the fl uid culture medium on fi bre integrity has to be examined. Generally, nanofi brous mats prepared from biopolymers, such as gelatine or alginate, are known to support cell growth for wound healing, tissue engineering or biotechnological purposes [15][16][17][18][19]. Especially for elongated cells, such as neurites or fi broblasts, nanofi bres have been shown to support cell growth [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Challenges for the development of surface modified biodegradable polyester biomaterials: A chemistry perspective

“…(c) Illustrates how a portion of the surface functionalities introduced using, e.g., aminolysis or hydrolysis may be dislodged from the surface resulting in a reduced surface density of functional groups. 06D501-3 A. L. Mutch and L. Grøndahl: Challenges for the development 06D501-3 enzyme mediated bulk degradation by mass or volume change of aminolyzed and PEGylated PCL, 8 poly(propylene fumarate) coated PCL, 9 as well as degradation in buffer of PLGA with a ceramic coating, 10 a gelatin-modified poly(lactic acid) (PLA) material 11 and hydrolyzed PCL (Ref. 12) found an increased degradation rate of the modified material compared with the pure polyester.…”