ABSTRACT
Porous polymers with suitable porous structures and chemical properties can serve as templates to guide cells to differentiate and grow into tissues or even organs. Such biomedical applications have drawn a lot of research attention and forms a research eld called tissue engineering. For an application in tissue engineering, the polymer should have appropriate biocompatibility and biodegradability. In addition, high porosity, a large surface area, a suitable pore size, and a highly interconnected pore structure are also needed. In this chapter, we concentrate on giving an overview of the methods for preparing a three-dimensional porous polymer structure. Polylactide (PLA), an Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved biodegradable polymer for clinical use, is used as an example polymer to demonstrate the pore-forming techniques. First, brief introductions to tissue engineering and PLA are given. An overview of the techniques to fabricate porous PLA then follows.
