A phenomenological model for the degradation of polymeric tissue engineering scaffolds

Biodegradable polymers have great number of applications in modern reconstructive medicine and orthopaedics. One of them is manufacturing of tissue engineering scaffolds, which are potential analogues of bone grafts. Bone scaffolds are commonly used to support reconstruction of tissue losses caused by injury or disease. The main goal of using the tissue engineered scaffolds is to maintain the mechanical function of injured tissue. Bone scaffolds are made as porous structures with interconnected pores. During the regenerative process implanted scaffold is subjected to degradation. Polymer matrix should be replaced by regenerated tissue. It is crucial to predict the degradation behaviour of biopolymer because of fact that its mechanical properties are function of its degradation properties. In the paper numerical model of aliphatic polyester degradation in aqueous medium are presented and adopted for prediction of degradation behaviour of bone scaffolds.