Physicochemical characterization and mechanical performance analysis of biaxially oriented PLA/PCL tubular scaffolds for intended stent application

Polylactic acid (PLA) and its blends are potential materials for bioresorbable vascular tubular scaffold (TS) manufacturing. The usual method for TS fabrication for intended stent application includes firstly extruding the polymeric tube and then subjected to post-processing operations for tailoring its mechanical properties. In this study, PLA/PCL blend TS was fabricated by using a novel and facile fabrication method, which eliminates the much-needed post-processing operation on the extruded TS. Two different ways were used to extrude the TS for a comparative study; (a) conventional Extrusion process (SE), and (b) novel single-step Biaxial Expansion during Extrusion (BAE). FTIR spectra were used to investigate the detailed physicochemical evaluation of the TS. Mechanical studies show BAE TS exhibits better mechanical performance as compared to SE TS. Also, BAE PLA/PCL blend TS containing 5 wt% PCL withstood higher burst pressure among the tested specimens. The water contact angle (CA) of BAE8% TS is observed to be 71° as compared to 81° for the SE0% TS. Further, BAE PLA/PCL TS scaffolds showed better cell viability by MTT assay as compared to pristine PLA.