Abstract
In recent years, bioactive glasses gained increasing scientific interest in bone tissue engineering due to their capability to chemically bond with the host tissue and to induce osteogenesis. As a result, several efforts have been addressed to use bioactive glasses in the production of three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds for bone regeneration. In this work, we creatively combine typical concepts of porous glass processing with those of waste management and propose, for the first time, the use of bread as a new sacrificial template for the fabrication of bioactive scaffolds. Preliminary SEM investigations performed on stale bread from industrial wastes revealed a suitable morphology characterized by an open-cell 3D architecture, which is potentially able to allow tissue ingrowth and vascularization. Morphological features, mechanical performances and in vitro bioactivity tests were performed in order to evaluate the properties of these new “sustainable” scaffolds for bone replacement and regeneration. Scaffolds with total porosity ranging from 70 to 85 vol% and mechanical strength comparable to cancellous bone were obtained. Globular hydroxyapatite was observed to form on the surface of the scaffolds after just 48-h immersion in simulated body fluid. The results show great promise and suggest the possibility to use bread as an innovative and inexpensive template for the development of highly-sustainable bone tissue engineering approaches.
Highlights
Bone substitution in critical-sized defects is still considered one of the greatest clinical challenges of our time [1,2,3,4,5]
Among the other sacrificial templates of natural origin, corn stalks, mushrooms and cattail stem have been successfully used in combination with mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) to produce multiscale macro-mesoporous scaffolds by sol-gel synthesis [37]. Inspired by all these approaches, we propose for the first time in this study the use of stale bread as a new sacrificial template for the production of macroporous glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering
Stale bread coming from industrial wastes was used as a novel sacrificial template to produce bioactive glass scaffolds by replication method
Summary
Bone substitution in critical-sized defects is still considered one of the greatest clinical challenges of our time [1,2,3,4,5]. Despite the latest progresses in bone tissue engineering (BTE) concerning both materials and manufacturing techniques, up to now, autologous bone is still considered the “gold standard” in grafting procedures due to its ability to support host bone healing and regeneration without triggering any adverse reaction, guaranteeing a good long-term outcome of the clinical treatment [6]. Autologous bone grafting suffers from some limitations, such as donor site morbidity due to the need for performing at least two surgical procedures and low tissue availability [7,8]. Bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics are considered promising materials for the production of scaffolds for BTE as an alternative therapeutic approach to autologous bone transplants [9,10,11].
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