Fabrication and in-vitro evaluation of copper doped bioactive glass/polymer composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Özet

Composites developed by combining bioactive glasses and biopolymers areattractive materials for use in bone tissue engineering scaffolds due to theirbioactivity, biocompatibility, osteoconductivity and mechanical properties.From this point of view, in this study, three-dimensional polymer/bioactivecomposite scaffolds were fabricated by using polymer foam replication method.To be able to achieve this goal, in the first stage new bioactive glass compositionin the system SiO2-CaO-Na2O-P2O5 were developed with the incorporation ofcopper which have antibacterial and angiogenic properties. Scaffolds that mimicthe structure of the foams were obtained after the heat treatment process. Then,the scaffolds were coated with gelatine at different percentages (1 and 3weight%) in order to improve mechanical properties of the scaffolds.Microstructural, physical, chemical and mechanical properties of the compositescaffolds were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM),energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infraredspectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), compressive strength testand porosity measurements. Furthermore, bioactivity and biodegradabilitybehavior of the samples were determined by in vitro simulated body fluid (SBF)studies. The results showed that all scaffolds favored precipitation of calciumphosphate layer when they were soaked in SBF; they can also deliver controlleddoses of copper toward the SBF medium. It was concluded that scaffolds coatedwith gelatine may be promising candidates for bone tissue engineeringapplications due to their porosity, bioactivity and appropriate biodegradationrate