The influence of braiding angle variation in braided-twisted fiber scaffold based poly L-lactic acid for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction application

Anterior Cruciatum Ligament (ACL) injury may cause other tissue injuries and degenerative joint diseases, rendering major surgery compulsory. The ACL substitutions from patient's other tissue (autograft), from cadaver (allograft), or from other species (xenograft) still cause problems like donor morbidity, reduction of mechanical strength in cryopreservation period, and the risk of transgenic infection. Tissue engineering approach is the proposed solution. For this, synthetic ligament scaffold is needed. Electrospinning is a method to produce porous scaffolds made of polymers. In this study, filaments were produced from electrospinning poly l-lactic acid. The filaments were then twisted with 60° angle to the horizontal to make a yarn. Subsequently, the yarns were braided with the variation of braiding angle 40° 60° and 80° The characterization on the scaffold includes degradation rate, porosity, tensile strength, and cytotoxicity. It was found that larger braiding angle gave higher degradation rate, bigger pore size, and lower mechanical strength. For cytotoxicity, in terms of pore size and percentage of living cell, scaffold with braiding angle of 80° also showed the optimum result.