The design and development of scaffolds play a crucial role in tissue engineering. In this regard, the study aims to establish the influence of porosity on the morpho-structural, physical–chemical, and biochemical characteristics of the polylactic acid (PLA) and/or polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds, in order to be considered candidates for tissue reconstruction. The results indicated that binary PLA-PCL and PCL matrices are more suitable than PLA, due to their higher crystallization degree, this contributing to the superior mechanical properties and lower network defects. The preponderance of molecular interactions decreases with porosity. Porosity induced a decrease in the degree of crystallization of PLA-PCL and an increase in water, glucose and blood components uptake by 188, 178, and 28%, respectively. The PLA-PCL scaffold was found to be more stable to lipase action than neat PLA as a result of the reduced enzyme access due to the higher crystallinity and thermodynamic stability of the hydrocarbon linear chain in PCL, which is higher than that of the side methyl group in PLA. Lactobacillus growth increases with porosity and was more pronounced on the PLA-PCL matrix. All these results show that varying the porosity and composition of the polymer mixture leads to valuable materials with nutrient absorption capacity and biodegradability superior to neat PLA or PCL materials.

This study aimed to investigate bioactive poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) films incorporating three chemically distinct naturally phenolic additives—aronia extract (A), apple peel extract (AP), and rutin (R)—as individual functional modifiers for active packaging applications. Here, we studied how the chemical nature of these phenolic compounds influenced the physicochemical characteristics, structure, release behavior, and functional properties of the PVA matrix. The FTIR, SEM, AFM and XPS analyses revealed intermolecular interactions between the hydroxyl groups from the PVA matrix and the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups from phenolic compounds, a high degree of miscibility between them, as well as uniform dispersion of polyphenols in the PVA matrix. XRD analysis indicated the ability of phenolic compounds to change the PVA film’s crystallinity. The films showed very low permeability to castor oil and the UV-Vis light barrier property of the film modified with aronia extract was 47% higher as compared to the reference film. The phenolic compounds improved the antioxidant activity of the reference film by about 90% and inhibited the growth of Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus. The modified films proved their functionality by keeping the quality of the butter packed for 43 days, demonstrating their potential as active packaging materials.

Design and development of scaffolds play a crucial role in tissue engineering. In this regard, the study aims to establish the influence of porosity on the morpho-structural, physical-chemical and biochemical characteristics of the polylactic acid (PLA) and/or polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds, in order to be considered candidates for tissue reconstruction. The results indicated that binary PLA-PCL and PCL matrices are more suitable than PLA, due to their higher crystallization degree. FTIR results showed that the hydrogen bond preponderance decreases with the porosity, revealed by the FTIR bands displacement in the more porous samples. A 28% increase in the PLA-PCL porosity led to a decrease in crystallization by 60%, but to an increase of water, glucose and blood components uptake by 188, 178 and 28%, respectively. Moreover, PLA-PCL scaffold was more stable to the lipase action than neat PLA, as a result of the lower density of ester groups and high crystallization degree. Lactobacillus growth increases with porosity and was found to be more pronounced on PLA-PCL. All these results show that the more porosity of the binary PLA-PCL matrices, as well as of the single PLA or PCL polymers is an essential factor influencing theirs crystallinity, nutrients uptake, biodegradability and toxicity.