Engineering Citric Acid-Based Porous Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration

Tissue engineering aims to develop scaffolds that are biocompatible and mimic the mechanical and biological properties of the target tissue as closely as possible. Here, we describe the fabrication and characterization of a biodegradable, elastomeric porous scaffold: poly(1,8-octanediol-co-citric acid) (POC) incorporated with nanoscale hydroxyapatite (HA). While this chapter focuses on the scaffold’s potential for bone regeneration, POC can also be used in other tissue engineering applications requiring an elastomeric implant. Because of the relative ease with which POC can be synthesized, its mechanical properties can be tailored to mimic the structure and function of the target elastomeric tissue for enhanced tissue regeneration.