Artificial Bone Substitute of MGSB and Hyaluronate Hydrogels

Abstract

A novel artificial bone substitute composed of bioactive MegaGen synthetic bone (MGSB) and hyaluronate (HA) hydrogels was successfully developed for bone tissue engineering applications. HA is known to play important roles in bone regeneration due to its angiogenic and osteoconductive characteristics. Accordingly, HA hydrogel was designed to supply HA continuously for effective bone regeneration by its controlled degrada- tion in vivo. Synchrotron X-ray bio-imaging clearly visualized 3-dimensional micron scale morphologies of effectively regenerated bones by the bone substitute of MGSB/Hyaluronate-Cystamine hydrogels implanted to the calvarial critical size bone defects in New Zealand white rabbits.