Biodegradable poly(L-lactic acid) scaffolds with internal hyaluronic acid coating. biological response in vitro

[Excerpt] Poly(L-lactic acid), a synthetic biodegradable polyester, is widely accepted for many tissue engineering applications. Hyaluronic acid (HA), as a polysaccharide of the extra cellular matrix (ECM), besides exhibiting an excellent biocompatibility, influences cell signaling, growth and differentiation. A combination between these materials might be interesting for tissue engineering studies. However, HA must be chemically modified for this use because of its easy dissolution in water and quick degradation in biological environments. Glutaraldehyde, GA, has been proposed as crosslinking agent to produce HA hydrogels. However, accordingly to the literature, there are contradictory results about the experimental protocol to be used, and relating to the cytotoxicity caused by glutaraldehyde remaining in the sample after crosslinking reactions. [...]