LAUSR

Exploiting the solid state drawing (SSD) process towards polymer materials for medical implant devices is of significance to simultaneously improve the mechanical property and biocompatibility. Herein, for the first time, the bionic implants with micro-valley surface of oriented long chain branching poly(lactic acid) (b-PLAs) was fabricated by a feasible SSD process. The as-obtained b-PLAs could not only show a high tensile strength (278.1 MPa) and modulus (4.32 GPa), but also bear a superior protein adsorption as high as 622 ng/cm2. Such exceptional mechanical properties and biocompatibility could be ascribed to the SSD process-induced highly orientation degree and the morphology of parallel grooves within ridges structures, resulting in the greatly enhanced crystallinity and surface hydrophobicity as well as a biocompatible vascular endothelial microstructure for cell to adhesion and growth, and thus an improved proliferation, differentiation and activity of osteoblasts with spindle-shaped and spread morphology on surface of the b-PLAs. These findings may pave the way for designing the novel biomaterials for vascular stent or tissue engineering devices by SSD process.