Biodegradable biomedical foam scaffolds

This chapter discusses the theoretical and experimental aspects related to the techniques for the preparation of scaffold by gas foaming of biodegradable polymers, of both natural and synthetic origin. Properties of polymer/gas solutions controlling nucleation and growth of gas bubbles are analysed in the first part of this chapter. In the second part, specific preparation methodologies and morphologies of foams based on selected biodegradable polymers will be presented. These include polysaccharides (starch, chitosan, alginates), vegetal (zein) and animal (gelatin) proteins, and polyesters (poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(glycolic acid) (PGA), and their copolymers PLGA, and poly-£-caprolactone (PCL)). © 2014 Woodhead Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.