Porous titanium scaffold coated using forsterite/poly-3-hydroxybutyrate composite for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Titanium and its alloys are well-known for superior properties, but they suffer from high elastic modulus and bio-inertness, which make porosification and surface treatment essential for them. In this study, porous titanium scaffold including 70 vol nominal porosity was fabricated using space holder method and its surface was coated using forsterite/poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (P3HB) nano-biocomposite. The forsterite nanoparticles were synthesized through sol-gel method in acidic medium and the nanoparticles were characterized completely through X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). According to XRD analysis and FESEM/TEM observations, it was found that the calcined nanoparticles contain forsterite as the major phase and enstatite as the minor phase and two morphologies including rod-like and spherical particles with size of smaller than 100 nm were observed. Regarding the coating results, FESEM observations of both uncoated and coated titanium scaffolds revealed that they consist of micro (< 10 mu m) and macro interconnected pores (300-400 mu m). After immersion into simulated body fluid (SBF) for 21 days at 37 degrees C, it was observed that coated titanium scaffold had higher apatite forming ability than that of uncoated one, also the composite coating inhibited excessive pH increment of the SBF. The MTT assay indicated that coating of the titanium scaffolds was accompanied by significant increase in the cell viability. Regarding the results of this study, it can be said that forsterite/P3HB nano-biocomposite is a promising candidate to improve the bio-functionalization of the titanium scaffolds for bone reconstruction purposes.