Abstract
In this article, we have described the in-vitro degradation properties of poly(p-dioxanone)(PDO) scaffolds for tissue engineering of periodontal bone. The hydrolytic degradation of the PDO scaffolds was carried out in buffer solution at $25^{\circ}C$. the degradation behavior was evaluated by analysing the SEM photographs of degraded samples, weight loss, DSC thermograms, intrinsic viscostity, and the changes in pH of degradation medium at different intervals of immersion time during the in-vitro test. The pore size of the scaffold was approximately 10~100${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and cracks were observed on the surface of scaffolds after 8 weeks immersion time. The decrease in intrinsic viscosity was observed to 20%, 67% and 92% during 4 weeks, 8 weeks and, 28 weeks of immersion time. The rate of weight loss was observed faster during first 4 weeks and about 55% weight loss was observed after 28 weeks. The melting peak appeared at 108.8$^{\circ}C$ with shoulder peak at 87$^{\circ}C$ after 8 weeks and it was moved to 99.9$^{\circ}C$ after 28 weeks. The pH of the degradation medium kept initial value of 7.0 untile 20 weeks, but after that it dropped form 6.79 to 6. Further more we also observed the low molecular weight PDO scaffolds were degraded faster than the high molecular weighte PDO scaffolds.
