Development of Porous Polymer-Ceramic Composites as Bone Grafts

Abstract

AbstractBiomaterials have made significant contributions to the advancement of modern health care and drug delivery industries. The present research is based on development of porous polymerceramic composite scaffolds using polypropylene (PP) polymer and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) ceramic for bone-graft applications. Three dimensionally interconnected controlled porosity scaffolds were fabricated using a fused deposition modeling (FDM) system. First, ceramic and polymeric materials were compounded under high shear using a torque rheometer. Compounded materials were then extruded to a 1.78mm diameter continuous filament using a single screw extruder. These filaments were used as a feedstock material for an FDM 1650 machine for direct fabrication of controlled porosity parts. Hg-porosimetry was done to determine pore size and their distribution in these structures. Tensile properties of neat composites and as received polymer were measured and compared using standard dog bone samples. Uniaxial compression tests were performed on cylindrical porous samples having average pore size of 160 μm and 36 vol% porosity. These samples showed an average ultimate compressive strength of 12.7 MPa. Average compressive modulus was calculated as 263 MPa. Cytotoxicity and cell proliferation studies were conducted with OPC1 modified human osteoblast cell-line. It was found that composite matrices were non-toxic and they showed excellent cell growth with OPC1 cells.