Strontium doped poly-ε-caprolactone composite scaffolds made by reactive foaming.
In the reconstruction and regeneration of bone tissue, a primary goal is to initiate bone growth and to stabilize the surrounding bone. In this regard, a potentially useful component in biomaterials for bone tissue engineering is strontium, which acts as cationic active agent, triggering certain intracellular pathways and acting as so called dual action bone agent which inhibits bone resorption while stimulating bone regeneration. In this study we established a novel processing for the foaming of a polymer (poly-ε-caprolactone) and simultaneous chemical reaction of a mixture of calcium and strontium hydroxides to the respective carbonates using supercritical carbon dioxide. The resultant porous composite scaffold was optimized in composition and strontium content and was characterized via different spectroscopic (infrared and Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), imaging (SEM, μCT), mechanical testing and in vitro methods (fluorescence vital staining, MTT-assay). As a result, the composite scaffold showed good in vitro biocompatibility with partly open pore structure and the expected chemistry. First mechanical testing results indicate sufficient mechanical stability to support future in vivo applications.
BLS Laboratories GmbH, Berlin, Germany; University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy, Potsdam, Germany. Electronic address: zehbe@bls-germany.com.
Rolf
R
Zehbe
University of Potsdam, Department of Chemistry, Potsdam, Germany.
Kerstin
K
Zehbe
D000818:Animals; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D011091:Polyesters / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016062:Porosity; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013324:Strontium / Q000494:pharmacology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry*; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography
D011091:Polyesters; C016240:polycaprolactone; D013324:Strontium
CAL-72 osteoblasts; L-929 fibroblasts; Poly-ε-caprolactone; Porous scaffold; Reactive foaming; Spectroscopy; Strontium; μCT imaging