Characterization and evaluation of fabricated poly(L-lactic) acid core fibers for ligament fascicle development

Poly(L-lactic) acid (PLLA) is a biodegradable thermoplastic aliphatic polyester that has been found to be an excellent material of choice for biomedical applications including tissue engineered implants. This paper will discuss the characterization of PLLA core fibers being developed for tissue engineering applications and its degradation properties which showed that even with a mass loss of ~30 %, the fibers had no significant change in mechanical strength. It is important to understand the degradation of polymer fibers in the design of scaffolds in order to discover the expected temporal loss of mechanical strength and integrity. This will allow for more improved design of fabricated structures and scaffolds that can maintain integrity overtime in the body during the regeneration process.