Hydrothermal growth of hydroxyapatite scaffolds from aragonitic cuttlefish bones

Scaffolds of AB-type carbonated hydroxyapatite (HA) were successfully produced via hydrothermal transformation (HT) of aragonitic cuttlefish bones at 200 C. The transformation was seemingly complete after 9 h of HT and no intermediate products were registered. Beyond low production cost, worldwide availability, and natural-biological origin of rare materials, the produced scaffolds preserved the initial structure of cuttlefish bone, featuring good biocompatibility in osteoblasts tests and ideal pore size (similar to 80 mu m in width and similar to 100 mu m in height) and interconnectivity for supporting biological activities, such as bone tissue growth and vascularization. The highly channeled structure and the use of fresh cuttlefish bones favored the diffusion of the reaction solution towards the aragonite resulting in fast kinetics (after 1 h, hydroxyapatite was the dominant crystalline phase). (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.