Characterization of phosphate glass/hydroxyapatite scaffold for palate repair

Abstract

Bone grafting is the standard treatment for cleft palate patients. However, a downside to this method is that it requires multiple surgeries to fill the gap in the mouth. Bone tissue engineering can be employed as a solution to this problem to fabricate artificial bone based on synthetic biomaterials. The objectives of this study focus on preparing phosphate glass and hydroxyapatite (HA) as well as developing appropriate forming conditions for scaffold based on the polymeric replication method. Various glass compositions and sintering temperatures were examined in order to investigate scaffold structure, compressive strength, and biodegradability. Amounts of CaO and sintering temperatures were varied in order to explore their impacts on scaffold properties. Results from XRD clearly show that phosphate glass and HA can be successfully synthesized using natural materials. It was also found that polymeric foam replication can be successfully used for scaffold fabrication and the scaffold microstructure revealed that the appropriate pore size for bone tissue engineering is in the 240-360 μm range. Results indicate that biodegradability can be regulated by the amount of CaO used. For example, specimens with the highest level of biodegradability were obtained from 30 mol% of CaO composition. The highest compressive strength (6.54 MPa) was obtained from scaffold containing 40 mol% of CaO, sintered at 750 °C. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.