Role of the porous structure of the bioceramic scaffolds in bone tissue engineering

Wang Zhen,Chang Jiang,Lin Li,Dai Rong,Bai Feng,Lei Chen,Lu Jianxi,Sun Xiaojiang

doi:10.1038/npre.2010.4148.1

Abstract

AbstractThe porous structure of biomaterials plays a critical role in improving the efficiency of biomaterials in tissue engineering. Here we fabricate successfully porous bioceramics with accurately controlled pore parameters, and investigate the effect of pore parameters on the mechanical property, the cell seeding proliferation and the vascularization of the scaffolds. This study shows that the porosity play an important role on the mechanical property of the scaffolds, which is affected not only by the macropores size, but also by the interconnections of the scaffolds. Larger pores are beneficial for cell growth in scaffolds. In contrast, the interconnections do not affect cell growth much. The interconnections appear to limit the number of blood vessels penatrating through adjacent pores, and both the pores size and interconnections can determine the size of blood vessels. The results may be referenced on the selective design of porous structure of biomaterials to meet the specificity of biological application.

Highlights

Tissue engineering is a fast developing field, which focuses on the reconstruction and regeneration of defected and disfunctional tissues
To investigate the effect of the pore parameters on the properties of the tissue engineering materials, an accurate control of the pore size and the size of the interconnection is required and this is a big challenge in the fabrication of the porous bioceramics
Structural and mechanical properties of the porous ceramic scaffolds For porous scaffold preparation, porous templates were first prepared by sticking the plastic macrospheres (300-700ȝm in diameter) together, and the contact between the macrospheres can be well controlled by controlling the preparation pressure and sticking time, which accurately determined the size of the interconnection of the ceramic scaffolds after sintering 21

Summary

Introduction

Tissue engineering is a fast developing field, which focuses on the reconstruction and regeneration of defected and disfunctional tissues. The physical-chemical and biological properties of the porous materials play a key role in the tissue reconstruction and regeneration process. Specific requirements for the mechanical manipulation, the cell seeding and infiltration, the vascularization of the scaffolds are critical, and the pore size, in particular, the size of the interconnections of the pores in tissue engineering scaffolds may be of great importance for tissue reconstruction. To investigate the effect of the pore parameters on the properties of the tissue engineering materials, an accurate control of the pore size and the size of the interconnection is required and this is a big challenge in the fabrication of the porous bioceramics. Under the accurate control of the pore parameters, the mechanical property, the cell seeding proliferation and metabolism in the scaffolds and the vascularization of the scaffolds were investigated

Methods

Results

Conclusion