The potential use of gentamicin sulfate-loaded poly(l-lactic acid)-sericin hybrid scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) scaffolds were prepared by a particulate leaching method using sodium chloride (NaCl) with the size of 300–425 µm as a particulate leaching. The PLLA/NaCl weight ratios were varied to be 1:8, 1:10, 1:12, and 1:15. The gentamicin sulfate (GS)-loaded PLLA-sericin hybrid scaffolds were prepared by immersion of the PLLA scaffolds in sericin solution containing GS at a concentration of 5 mg mL −1 and subsequently freeze-drying. From the results, the pore sizes of the neat and the GS-loaded PLLA-sericin hybrid scaffolds ranged between 290 and 346 µm. The pore interconnectivity of these scaffolds increased with an increase in the amount of NaCl. Both the neat and the GS-loaded PLLA-sericin hybrid scaffolds that had been fabricated at PLLA/NaCl weight ratio of 1:15 showed high interconnected porous structure. Both the water retention and the weight loss increased with increasing NaCl content and submersion time. The increase in the porous structure of the scaffolds with the increasing NaCl content resulted in an observed decrease in the compressive modulus. Moreover, the cumulative released amounts of GS increased with increasing the porous structure of the scaffolds. All the GS-loaded PLLA-sericin hybrid scaffolds showed high activity against the growth of both E. coli TISTR 780 and S. aureus TISTR 1466. Lastly, all the GS-loaded PLLA-sericin hybrid scaffolds were proven non-toxic to MC3T3-E1 cells, indicating their potential uses for bone tissue engineering.