Fabrication of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) scaffolds containing silk fibroin scaffolds for tissue engineering applications

The present study deals with the fabrication of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds modified with silk fibroin for biomedical application. The PLGA solutions were added with salt particles and pressed with high pressures; which were further subjected to salt leaching resulting in the creation of large sized pores in the PLGA scaffolds. To fill up these pores, 2%, 4%, and 8% of silk solutions were added, however, the addition created extra small sized pores. The scaffolds were characterized by various state of techniques; the scanning electronic microscopy revealed the large sized pores in the pristine scaffold can be tailored into smaller architecture by the addition of silk fibroin. The contact angle measurements confirmed the introduction of silk helped to change the hydrophobic nature of PLGA into hydrophilic, which is the main constrain for PLGA. The mechanical properties of scaffold can be easily improved by applying the higher amounts of silk into the scaffolds. The thermal gravimetric analyses and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of silk fibroin in scaffolds. The cell viability and cell attachment was checked by culturing the scaffolds with NIH 3T3 fibroblasts and chondrocytes. Furthermore, these results revealed that the introduction of silk had significant impact on the viability of fibroblast also had a good affinity for cell attachment and infiltration of human chondrocytes in scaffolds after culturing the cells for 2 and 5 weeks of time.