Hierarchical micro/nanostructures of poly (lactic acid) scaffolds for medical applications

Although tissue engineering has shown great advances in recent years, creating proper mechanical properties and cell growth microenvironments is still challenging. In this study, electrospun poly (lactic acid), PLA, nanofibrous membranes were hot embossed to develop 3D hierarchical micro/ nanostructures. Human umbilical-vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were then cultured on these structures. The hot-embossed membranes exhibited not only superior mechanical properties (the tensile strength was 7.01 ± 0.18 MPa and the tensile modulus was 166.91 ± 15.54 MPa), but also better cell viability as evaluated through a CCK-8 assay and fluorescent dye. The grating arrays of the micropatterned fiber mats encouraged the HUVECs to proliferate. The approach proposed here-combined electrospinning and hot embossing-has great potential for biomedical applications, including for use as polymer scaffolds in tissue engineering.