title: Biomedical nanocomposites of poly(lactic acid) and calcium phosphate hybridized with modified carbon nanotubes for hard tissue implants.
abstract: Degradable polymer-based materials are attractive in orthopedics and dentistry as an alternative to metallic implants for use as bone fixatives. Herein, a degradable polymer poly(lactic acid) (PLA) was combined with novel hybrid nanopowder of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-calcium phosphate (CP) for this application. In particular, CNTs-CP hybrid nanopowders (0.1 and 0.25% CNTs) were prepared from the solution of ionically modified CNTs (mCNTs), which was specifically synthesized to be well-dispersed and thus to effectively adsorb onto the CP nanoparticles. The mCNTs-CP hybrid nanopowders were then mixed with PLA (up to 50%) to produce mCNTs-CP-PLA nanocomposites. The mechanical tensile strength of the nanocomposites was significantly improved by the addition of mCNTs-CP hybrid nanopowders. Moreover, nanocomposites containing low concentration of mCNTs (0.1%) showed significantly stimulated biological responses including cell proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation in terms of gene and protein expressions. Based on this study, the addition of novel mCNT-CP hybrid nanopowders to PLA biopolymer may be considered a new material choice for developing hard tissue implants.
authors: Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, South Korea; Department of Biomaterials Science, School of Dentistry, Dankook University, South Korea.
authors: Hae-Hyoung
authors: HH
authors: Lee
authors: Ueon
authors: U
authors: Sang Shin
authors: Jae-Ho
authors: JH
authors: Lee
authors: Hae-Won
authors: HW
authors: Kim