Novel Bioceramic Scaffolds for Regenerative Medicine

Calcium phosphate ceramics have been used as synthetic grafts for bone repair. This family of alloplastic grafts is an alternative to allografts (from other individuals from the same specie), autografts (from the same individual) or xenografts (from individuals from other species). Sintered bovine bone is basically composed mainly by hydroxyapatite (HA), Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 but chemical analyses indicate the presence of Mg. Chemical and heat treatments are generally required to eliminate biological hazard. However, the more crystalline hydroxyapatite, the less resorbable the product is. An approach to have a highly crystalline and still resorbable material is to use additions of alpha or beta tricalcium phosphate, Ca3(PO4)2 , (TCP). The addition of fractions of some bioactive glasses to hydroxyapatite has shown to be effective in promoting its decomposition to tricalcium phosphate. In addition, glass reinforced hydroxyapatite composite are materials with higher compressive strength due to liquid phase sintering. In this study, novel scaffolds based on hydroxyapatite and tricalcium phosphate are presented.