Preparation, structural and mechanical characterization of porous hydroxyapatite-gelatin composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

In this study, to mimic the mineral and organic component of natural bone, hydroxapatite[HA] and gelatin[GEL] composite scaffolds were prepared using solvent-casting method combined with freeze drying process. Glutaraldehyde[GA] was used as cross linking agent and the bisulfite sodium was used as excess GA discharger. With this technique, it is possible to produce scaffolds with mechanical and structural properties close to natural trabecular bone. The scaffold prepared has an open, interconnected porous structure with a pore size of 80-400 mu m. It was found that the GEL/HA with ratio of 50wt% HA has the compressive modulus of similar to 10GPa, the ultimate compressive stress of similar to 32MPa and the elongation of similar to 3MPa similar to that of trabecular bone. The chemical bonding and the microstructure of the composites were investigated by FT-IR, SEM and Light microscopy. The porosity and the apparent density of 50wt% HA scaffold were calculated and it was found that the addition of HA content can reduce the water absorption and the porosity. The biological responses of scaffolds carried out by L929 fibroblast cell culture.