Fabrication of long-acting drug release property of hierarchical porous bioglasses/polylactic acid fibre scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Hierarchical porous fibre scaffolds with mesoporous bioglasses (MBGs) and polylactic acid (PLA) were successfully fabricated by the electrospinning method. These compound scaffolds possess macropores with sizes of about 100 nm because of the solvent evaporation from the fibre and the mesoporous structure ( ~4.0 nm) originated from MBGs. The biomineralisation ability was investigated in simulated body fluid. The fibre structure is beneficial for inducing the growth of hydroxyapatite. In addition, compared with pure MBGs, the materials (MP-1 and MP-2) exhibit a long-acting drug release process up to 140 h and the drug release process corresponds with the Fickian diffusion mechanism. With the special fibre morphology and the hierarchical porous structure, the MBGs/PLA fibre scaffolds are expected to have potential application for bone tissue repair and regeneration.