Bioresorbable composite bone paste using polysaccharide based nano hydroxyapatite

Aim of this study concerns to the development of bioresorbable composite materials for bone repair and regeneration. Despite nano hydroxyapatite (HA) has wide range of medical applications, particles mobilization and slow resorbable nature limits its use in certain applications particularly, periodontal and alveolar ridge augmentation. To enhance its usage, we have prepared HA composite bone paste with a natural polysaccharide, chitosan, using wet chemical method at low temperature. The prepared composites were analyzed by various physicochemical methods and suggesting that the nano HA crystallites are well intact with the chitosan macromolecules. FT-IR results are indicating the existence of hydroxyl and amide groups in addition to the characteristic peaks of nano HA in the composite paste. The physical nature of paste form implies that it would be highly beneficial for the particle immobilization upon implantation. In vitro physiological stability and solubility of the composite was performed in phosphate buffered saline under physiological condition and found that the rate of resorbability of composite was quite higher than nano HA. These findings suggest that the HA/chitosan composites may have a great impact on human health care systems as bioresorbable bone substitute. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.