Effect of Salt Leaching on PCL and PLGA(50/50) Resorbable Scaffolds

The use of porous bioresorbable scaffolds in the field of tissue engineering represents an alternative for the treatment of lesions and losses of biological tissues. This work evaluates the leaching salt effect of two different processes and polymers. Dense and porous scaffolds were prepared with poly(epson-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(D,L-lactic acid-co-glycolic acid) (50/50) (PLGA50) by casting and melting compression process. Sodium citrate with particles sizes of 180-250 μm of diameter was used as porogen. The dense and porous samples were immersed in distilled water for 30 hours and evaluated for pH and mass variations, by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results of the analyses showed that the inclusion of the salt and leaching process did not affect the properties of the scaffold, indicating that the method is useful to make porous scaffolds to be potentially used in tissue engineering.