A poly(lactic acid)/calcium metaphosphate composite for bone tissue engineering

A new method to prepare PLA/CMP (poly-l-lactide/calcium metaphosphate) composite scaffolds was developed for effective bone tissue engineering. This novel sintering method is composed of pressing the mixture of PLA, CMP, and salt particles at 150 MPa for 3 min followed by heat treatment at 210 °C for 30 min. The scaffolds had a homogeneously interconnected porous structure without a skin layer, and they exhibited a narrower pore size distribution and higher mechanical strength in comparison with scaffolds made by a solvent casting method. The scaffolds were seeded by osteoblasts and cultured in vitro or implanted into nude mice subcutaneously for up to 5 weeks. The number of cells attached to and proliferated on the scaffolds at both in vitro and in vivo was in the order of; PLA by novel sintering