Macroporous glass-ceramic materials with bioactive properties

Abstract

In the present research work, glass powders and three different organic starches were used to realize macroporous glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone substitutions. For this purpose, bioactive glass powders belonging to the system SiO2-CaO-Na2O-MgO were mixed in a liquid medium with the desired amount of the selected organic phase. Afterwards, by progressively raising the temperature, the water uptake of starches occurred and led to the gelling of the whole system. The resultant gel underwent two thermal treatments in order to eliminate the organic phase and to allow the sintering of the glassy phase. In this way, macroporous glass-ceramic scaffolds were successfully prepared. The samples were characterized by means of optical and scanning electron microscopy with compositional analysis. The volume and mean size of the obtained porosity were investigated by means of mercury intrusion porosimetry, whereas its morphology was assessed by means of microscopic observations. The structure of the original and the resultant materials were investigated by X-ray diffraction. In order to study the reactivity of the scaffolds towards physiological media, the samples were soaked in a simulated body fluid for various times. On their soaked surfaces, scanning electron microscopy and compositional analysis were carried out in order to assess their bioactivity.

Monodisperse Mesoporous Silica Spheres Inside a Bioactive Macroporous Glass–Ceramic Scaffold

“…The scaffold has been obtained trough a burn-out synthesis, using polyethylene particles (300-600 mm) for the interconnected porosity [18] ( preparation step).…”

Bone tissue engineering therapeutics: controlled drug delivery in three-dimensional scaffolds

“…However, some of these ceramics degrade very slowly, with crystalline HA being a very stable CaP in the biological environment (table 1) (Marcacci et al 2007;Chen et al 2008). More recently, bioactive silicate glasses and glass -ceramics have been investigated in their application as scaffolds (Livingston et al 2002;Di Nunzio et al 2004;Vitale-Brovarone et al 2004;Chen, Q. Z. et al 2006;Fu et al 2007;Vitale-Brovarone et al 2008).…”

Bioactive glass and glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

“…In addition to providing excellent in vitro bioactivity [14,43,94,109,110,115], cell biology behavior [15,105,114,118,119] and favorable mechanical properties [99,102,105], bioactive glassceramic scaffolds have shown superior in vivo behavior (e.g., bone formation, mineralization, higher interfacial strength between implant and bone) compared to the glass in particulate form [113] or compared to other bioactive materials (HA, tricalcium phosphate) [52].…”