Summary of 10-year efforts in PLGA porous scaffolds for tissue engineering

Porous scaffolds fabricated from biocompatible and biodegradable polymers play vital roles in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Among various scaffold matrix materials, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is a very popular and an important biodegradable polyester owing to its tunable degradation rates, good mechanical properties and processibility, etc.

This review highlights the progress on PLGA scaffolds with emphasis of efforts from Ding group for a bit over 10 years. In this group, some facile fabrication approaches at room temperature were put forward; more appropriate pore structures were designed and achieved; the mechanical properties were investigated both for dry and wet scaffolds; a long time biodegradation of the PLGA scaffold was observed and a three-stage model was established; even the effects of pore size and porosity on in vitro biodegradation were revealed; the PLGA scaffolds have also been implanted into animals, and some tissues have been regenerated in vivo after loading cells including stem cells.

Zhen Pan, and Jiandong Ding*, Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) porous scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, Interface Focus, 2, 366–377 (2012)