Improvement in degradability of 58s glass scaffolds by ZnO and β-TCP modification

58s bioactive glass shows great potential for bone defects repair. However, at early repairing stage, the degradation rate of 58s glass is too fast due to the fast ion-exchange. At later repairing stage, the degradation rate of 58s glass is too slow due to the high dense mineral layer. In this work, Zinc oxide (ZnO) and beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) were introduced into 58s glass bone scaffolds to improve the degradability. The results showed that ZnO could decrease the degradation rate and promote the stability of 58s glass at early repairing stage. Moreover, the presence of beta-TCP appeared to increase the degradation rate at a later stage of repairing. Furthermore, in vitro biocompatibility study, carried out using human osteoblast-like cells (MG63), demonstrated that ZnO and beta-TCP enhanced cell attachment and proliferation. The study provided a reference for further research in bone tissue engineering.