A New Highly Bioactive Composite for Scaffold Applications: A Feasibility Study

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been widely investigated as scaffolding material for bone tissue engineering, mainly for its excellent biocompatibility. Presently, there is an increasing interest in the composites of hydroxyapatite with bioactive glasses, with the aim to obtain systems with improved bioactivity or mechanical properties. Moreover, modifying the ratio between bioactive glass and hydroxyapatite results in the possibility of controlling the reaction rate of the composite scaffold in the human body. However, high temperature treatments are usually required in order to sinter HA-based composites, causing the bioactive glass to crystallize into a glass-ceramic, with possible negative effects on its bioactivity. In the present research work, a glass composition belonging to the Na₂O-CaO-P₂O₅-SiO₂ system, with a reduced tendency to crystallize, is applied to realize HA-based composites. The novel samples can be sintered at a relative low temperature (750 °C) compared to the widely studied HA/45S5 Bioglass® composites. This fact greatly helps to preserve the amorphous nature of the glass, with excellent effects in terms of bioactivity, according to in vitro tests. As a first application, the obtained composites are also tested to realize highly porous scaffolds by means of the standard burning out method.