Increase of degradation and water uptake rate using electrospun star-shaped poly(D,L-lactide) nanofiber

Conventional poly(D,L-lactide) (PLA)-based scaffolds have limited in biomedical applications because they inherently have long degradation time, strong stiffness, and hydrophobicity. This study presents a novel approach for solving the technical issues using electrospun nanofiber of star-shaped PLA. The nanofibers can be substantially altered by the control of number arms in monomer unit. The electrospun scaffolds based on the star-shaped PLA polymers, comprised of randomly interconnected webs of sub-micron sized fibers. In this study, the effects of PLA polymers with different branched arms on the rate of water uptake and biodegradation of electrospun scaffolds are investigated. The hydrophilicity of electrospun PLA nanofibers, as determined by rate of water uptake, is dramatically increased. In addition, in vitro degradation study clearly confirms that the electrospun nanofiber having 3-branched arms shows the 75% weight loss in 3 days, which suggest that the electrospun nanofiber with 3 arms-monomer is most easily degradable one. The selection of branched PLA combined with the non-invasive electrospinning process is useful in the synthesis of a novel kind of biodegradable scaffolds suitable for different biomedical applications because of easy control of porosity, mechanical flexibility, higher water uptake, and biodegradability. (C) 2011 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.