The effect of fiber size and pore size on cell proliferation and infiltration in PLLA scaffolds on bone tissue engineering

Abstract

The scaffold microstructure has a great impact on cell functions in tissue engineering. Herein, the PLLA scaffolds with hierarchical fiber size and pore size were successfully fabricated by thermal-induced phase separation or combined thermal-induced phase separation and salt leaching methods. The PLLA scaffolds were fabricated as microfibrous scaffolds, microfibrous scaffolds with macropores (50–350 µm), nanofibrous scaffolds with micropores (100 nm to 10 µm), and nanofibrous scaffolds with both macropores and micropores by tailoring selective solvents for forming different fiber size and pre-sieved salts for creating controlled pore size. Among the four kinds of PLLA scaffolds, the nanofibrous scaffolds with both macropores and micropores provided a favorable microenvironment for protein adsorption, cell proliferation, and cell infiltration. The results further confirmed the significance of fiber size and pore size on the biological properties, and a scaffold with both micropores and macropores, and a nanofibrous matrix might have promising applications in bone tissue engineering.