Highly porous novel chondro-instructive bioactive glass scaffolds tailored for cartilage tissue engineering

2021

Abstract Cartilage injuries remain challenging since the regenerative capacity of cartilage is extremely low. The aim was to design a novel type of bioactive glass (BG) scaffold with suitable topology that allows the formation of cartilage-specific extracellular matrix (ECM) after colonization with chondrogenic cells for cartilage repair. Highly porous scaffolds with interconnecting pores consisting of 100 % BG were manufactured using a melting, milling, sintering and leaching technique. Scaffolds were colonized with porcine articular chondrocytes (pAC) and undifferentiated human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSC) for up to 35 days. Scaffolds displayed high cytocompatibility with no major pH …

Biological characterization of Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA)/Hydroxyapatite (HA)/Bioglass (BG) composite scaffolds made by Thermally Induced Phase Separa…

In the last few years, Tissue Engineering has focused on the favourable effects that composite scaffolds have on cell adhesion, growth and differentiation. In fact, composite scaffolds, usually composed of a synthetic polymer supplemented with naturally occurring components, display superior mechanical properties and bioconductivity than scaffolds consisting of a single component. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is the major inorganic component of bones. Bioglass (BG) is known to exert stimulatory effects on cells by ion release and hence, could be also advantageous for Bone Tissue Engineering. Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) is a versatile synthetic polymer combinable with HA and BG. The aim of this work wa…