Hydrolytic Degradation of Polylactic Acid Fibers as a Function of pH and Exposure Time.

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a widely used bioresorbable polymer in medical devices owing to its biocompatibility, bioresorbability, and biodegradability. It is also considered a sustainable solution for a wide variety of other applications, including packaging. Because of its widespread use, there have been many studies evaluating this polymer. However, gaps still exist in our understanding of the hydrolytic degradation in extreme pH environments and its impact on physical and mechanical properties, especially in fibrous materials. The goal of this work is to explore the hydrolytic degradation of PLA fibers as a function of a wide range of pH values and exposure times. To complement the experimental measurements, molecular-level details were obtained using both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with ReaxFF and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The hydrolytic degradation of PLA fibers from both experiments and simulations was observed to have a faster rate of degradation in alkaline conditions, with 40% of strength loss of the fibers in just 25 days together with an increase in the percent crystallinity of the degraded samples. Additionally, surface erosion was observed in these PLA fibers, especially in extreme alkaline environments, in contrast to bulk erosion observed in molded PLA grafts and other materials, which is attributed to the increased crystallinity induced during the fiber spinning process. These results indicate that spun PLA fibers function in a predictable manner as a bioresorbable medical device when totally degraded at end-of-life in more alkaline conditions.

Effect of visco-elastic silk-chitosan microcomposite scaffolds on matrix deposition and biomechanical functionality for cartilage tissue engineering.

Commonly used polymer-based scaffolds often lack visco-elastic properties to serve as a replacement for cartilage tissue. This study explores the effect of reinforcement of silk matrix with chitosan microparticles to create a visco-elastic matrix that could support the redifferentiation of expanded chondrocytes. Goat chondrocytes produced collagen type II and glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-enriched matrix on all the scaffolds (silk:chitosan 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1). The control group of silk-only constructs suffered from leaching out of GAG molecules into the medium. Chitosan-reinforced scaffolds retained a statistically significant (p < 0.02) higher amount of GAG, which in turn significantly increased (p < 0.005) the aggregate modulus (as compared to silk-only controls) of the construct akin to that of native tissue. Furthermore, the microcomposite constructs demonstrated highly pronounced hysteresis at 4% strain up to 400 cycles, mimicking the visco-elastic properties of native cartilage tissue. These results demonstrated a step towards optimizing the design of biomaterial scaffolds used for cartilage tissue engineering. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.