Based on a kind of sintered hydroxyapatite (HA) with a good cytocompatibility, a series of polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA/HA with the various PLA:HA weight ratio (5:5, 4:6, 3:7, 2:8, 1:9) were fabricated by supercritical CO2. The physical and chemical properties were evaluated by pH, degradation, water absorption, porosity, density, mechanical property, and cytotoxicity respectively. With the increase of HA content, the pH value and porosity increased gradually, while weight loss rate and the density showed a gradual downward trend. Existence of HA can drastically improve the hydroscopicity of PLA scaffolds. The compression strength values slightly increased (p>0.05) from 39.96 MPa of PLA to 45.00 MPa of PLA/HA with the ratio of 7:3, subsequently, the values decreased (p<0.05) from 43.29 MPa (8:2) to 19.00 MPa (9:1). While the modulus of elasticity decreased (p<0.05) from 5.89 to 1.84 GPa with increasing HA content. The PLA/HA (8:2) promoted cell proliferation more significantly than any of other groups (p<0.05). Based on the results, the overall properties of porous scaffolds are the optimal when the weight ratio of PLA/HA is 8:2. Its pH, porosity, density, compression strength, and elasticity modulus are 7.39, 83.0%, 0.60g/cm-3, 34.1 MPa and 2.63 GPa, respectively. SEM observation presented a homogeneous distribution of HA in PLA matrix and a foam-like structure comprising interconnected pores.
Keywords: Poly(lactic acid); bone repair; composite biomaterial; hydroxyapatite; supercritical CO2.