Polylactic acid (PLA) scaffolds have been widely used in tissue engineering due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, low melt strength and cell coalescence of PLA during foaming limit its processability in scaffold fabrication. In this study, halloysite nanotube (HNT) was used as nano filler in generation of PLA nanocomposite in order to improve mechanical and biological properties of the material. PLA/HNT nanocomposites were prepared by melt mixing method within HNT concentrations of 1-3-5%wt. Injection molding with chemical foaming agent, azodicarbonamide, was used to produce tensile test samples of PLA/HNT scaffolds. Universal tensile test was applied for determining mechanical properties and in vitro cell testing was used for observing cell viability and proliferation. Results have shown that 3 wt% of HNT loading exhibited significantly improved cellular structure in comparison with other foamed samples, leading to increased values of the tensile strength about 124% and elongation about 118%. Presence of HNT reduced the cell size, increased the cell density and improved cell morphology of the PLA. This brought enhancement in cytocompatibility of PLA based scaffolds apparently.