Characterisation of Calcium Phosphate Cement-Derived Hydroxyapatite Scaffolds with a PLGA-Bioactive Glass Composite Coating

The limitations of autogenic, allogenic and xenogenic grafting methods have led to the development of synthetic grafts as an alternative. The aim of this study was to manufacture highly porous and well interconnected hydroxyapatite scaffolds and modify them with a poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-bioactive glass composite coating to achieve mechanical properties close to those of natural cancellous bones. In this study, hydroxyapatite scaffolds were prepared from a calcium phosphate cement (CPC) powder and cell culture using fibroblast cells was done to examine the cytotoxicity of the materials used for the scaffolds. The average pore size of the scaffolds was found to be 650μm and the total porosity was about 80%. The hydroxyapatite scaffolds without the coating had a mean compressive strength and a mean compressive modulus of 0.74 MPa and 20.46 MPa, respectively, which were in contrast to those of the scaffolds coated with the PLGA-bioacitve glass composite material (1.36 MPa and 24.58 MPa, respectively). The fibroblast cells were observed to proliferate well on the PLGA-bioactive glass coated scaffolds. The cells had also penetrated into the scaffold to a depth of approximately 2mm. Thus the scaffolds fabricated in this study exhibited a favourable porous structure and good cell response which are desirable for bone tissue engineering.