Title :
Characterization and evaluation of fabricated poly(L-lactic) acid core fibers for ligament fascicle development
Author :
Laurilliard, E.J. ; Lee, K.L. ; Cooper, J.A.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Rensselaer Polytech. Inst., Troy, NY, USA
Abstract :
Poly(L-lactic) acid (PLLA) is a biodegradable thermoplastic aliphatic polyester that has been found to be an excellent material of choice for biomedical applications including tissue engineered implants. This paper will discuss the characterization of PLLA core fibers being developed for tissue engineering applications and its degradation properties which showed that even with a mass loss of ~30 %, the fibers had no significant change in mechanical strength. It is important to understand the degradation of polymer fibers in the design of scaffolds in order to discover the expected temporal loss of mechanical strength and integrity. This will allow for more improved design of fabricated structures and scaffolds that can maintain integrity overtime in the body during the regeneration process.
Keywords :
biodegradable materials; biological tissues; biomechanics; biomedical materials; environmental degradation; losses; materials preparation; mechanical strength; polymer fibres; prosthetics; tissue engineering; PLLA; biodegradable thermoplastic aliphatic polyester; biomedical application; biomedical material; integrity temporal loss; ligament fascicle development; mass loss; mechanical strength temporal loss; poly(L-lactic) acid core fiber fabrication; polymer fiber degradation properties; polymer fiber mechanical strength; regeneration; scaffold design; scaffold fabrication; tissue engineered implant; tissue engineering application; Degradation; Ligaments; Optical fiber devices; Optical fiber testing; Protein engineering; Proteins;
Conference_Titel :
Biomedical Engineering Conference (NEBEC), 2015 41st Annual Northeast
Conference_Location :
Troy, NY
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-8358-2
DOI :
10.1109/NEBEC.2015.7117108
