Enhancing the porosity of biphasic calcium phosphate using polyethylene glycol as the porogen for bone regeneration applications

Biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) has been used as a material to support bone grafting, repair, recovery, and regeneration over the past decades. However, the inherent weakness of BCP is its low porosity, which limits the infiltration, differentiation, and proliferation of bone cells. To address this issue, porous BCP was synthesized using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 with weight ratio ranging from 20%-60% in BCP as the porogen through the powder-forming method. Analytical methods such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy were used to demonstrate the purity, morphology and functional groups on the material surface of the obtained BCP samples. Structurally, the BCP sample with 60% PEG, named B60, possessed the highest porosity of 71% and its pore diameters ranging from 5 to 75 mu m. Besides, the in vitro biocompatibility of B60 material have been demonstrated on the L929 cell line (90% cell viability) and simulated body fluid (apatite formation after 1 d). These results suggested that B60 should be further studied as a promising artificial material for bone regenerating applications.