Materials Research Institute, Athlone Institute of Technology, Dublin Rd, Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2013 Oct;33(7):4203-12. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2013.06.013. Epub 2013 Jun 24.
Due to the deficiencies of current commercially available biological bone grafts, alternative bone graft substitutes have come to the forefront of tissue engineering in recent times. The main challenge for scientists in manufacturing bone graft substitutes is to obtain a scaffold that has sufficient mechanical strength and bioactive properties to promote formation of new tissue. The ability to synthesise hydrogel based composite scaffolds using photopolymerisation has been demonstrated in this study. The prepared hydrogel based composites were characterised using techniques including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), rheological studies and compression testing. In addition, gel fraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), porosity and swelling studies of the composites were carried out. It was found that these novel hydrogel bioglass composite formulations did not display the inherent brittleness that is typically associated with bioactive glass based bone graft materials and exhibited enhanced biomechanical properties compared to the polyethylene glycol hydrogel scaffolds along. Together, the combination of enhanced mechanical properties and the deposition of apatite on the surface of these hydrogel based composites make them an ideal candidate as bone graft substitutes in cancellous bone defects or low load bearing applications.
由于当前市售生物骨移植物存在缺陷，替代骨移植物替代品成为近年来组织工程的前沿。制造骨移植物替代品的科学家面临的主要挑战是获得具有足够机械强度和生物活性的支架，以促进新组织的形成。本研究证明了使用光聚合合成水凝胶基复合材料支架的能力。使用傅里叶变换红外光谱 (FTIR)、X 射线衍射 (XRD)、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM)、能谱 (EDX)、流变学研究和压缩测试等技术对制备的水凝胶基复合材料进行了表征。此外，还对复合材料的凝胶分数、差示扫描量热法 (DSC)、热重分析 (TGA)、孔隙率和溶胀进行了研究。结果发现，这些新型水凝胶生物玻璃复合材料配方没有表现出与基于生物活性玻璃的骨移植物材料相关的固有脆性，并表现出比聚乙二醇水凝胶支架更高的生物力学性能。综上所述，增强的机械性能与这些水凝胶基复合材料表面上磷灰石的沉积相结合，使它们成为松质骨缺损或低承载应用中骨移植物替代品的理想候选材料。
