Bioactive borosilicate glass scaffolds: improvement on the strength of glass-based scaffolds for tissue engineering

Abstract

Three-dimensional macroporous scaffolds with the pore size of 200-500 mum were fabricated by replication method using bioactive borosilicate glass from Na(2)O-K(2)O-MgO-CaO-SiO(2)-P(2)O(5)-B(2)O(3) system. The effects of the strength of the strut in reticulated scaffold, as well as the geometrical parameter of the scaffold on the strength of reticulated scaffold were investigated. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the solidified glass struts in the reticulated scaffold could be obtained through a sufficient vicious flow of glass, during the fabrication. By increasing the solid content in slurries, from which the scaffold was made, the load-bearing units of the reticulated scaffold switch from struts to the walls between the pores, and the compressive strength dramatically climbs higher than the theoretical strength calculated by Gibson model. In particular, the compressive strength of the reticulated scaffold, as high as approximately 10 MPa with the porosity of approximately 70%, is close to the reported compressive values of human cancellous bone. This indicates the bioactive borosilicate glass-based scaffold is a promising candidate for bone tissue engineering.

Porous β-Ca2SiO4 ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering: In vitro and in vivo characterization

“…3). Compared with the compressive strength of HA [20,21], β-TCP [22,23], bioglass [24,25], diopside [10] scaffolds and cancellous bone [26] at the similar porosity range (Table 2), the compressive strength of porous β-Ca 2 SiO 4 ceramic scaffolds showed the highest value.…”

Bioactive glass and glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

“…The high amounts of Na 2 O and CaO, as well as the relatively high CaO/P 2 O 5 ratio make the glass surface highly reactive in physiological environments [11]. Other bioactive glass compositions developed over the years contain no sodium or have additional elements incorporated in the silicate network such as fluorine [13], magnesium [14,15], strontium [16][17][18], iron [19], silver [20][21][22][23], boron [24][25][26][27], potassium [28] or zinc [29,30]. Fabrication techniques for bioactive glasses include both traditional melting methods and sol-gel techniques [1, 3,4,10,[31][32][33], the latter are being highlighted elsewhere [34] and are not covered in this review.…”

Strontium borate glass: potential biomaterial for bone regeneration

“…As a result, borate glass, based on a B 2 O 3 network, is now showing potential in bone regeneration, owing to its complete conversion to apatite through a set of dissolutionprecipitation reactions similar in nature to those in 45S5 Bioglass (Huang et al 2006;Yao et al 2007;Liu et al 2009b). In particular, the mechanical strength of a scaffold based on a boron network former is significantly higher than that of the silicon network former in 45S5 Bioglass (Liu et al 2009a).…”