Synthesis and Characterization of CSH/CS/n-HA Composite Scaffold for Bone Tissue Engineering
Abstract In this paper, chitosan/hydroxyapatite (CS/n-HA) were synthesized by ultrasound-assisted precipitation combined with inverse crosslinking-emulsion method. In order to obtain a scaffold material with excellent properties, Calcium sulfate hemihydrate (CSH) were combined with CS-HA obtained CSH/CS/n-HA composite scaffold via setting citric acid as solidifying liquid, which possessed better biodegradability, bioactivity, mechanical properties. The physicochemical, morphological properties of scaffolds were characterized by FTIR, XRD and TFSEM. In addition, explored were the mechanical, degradable, biocompatibility and iron release properties. The mechanical strength study indicated that the compressive strength of the porous composite scaffold was influenced by adding an appropriate amount of CS/n-HA composite microspheres. It was proved that the composite scaffold with 6% CS/n-HA content obtained the highest mechanical strength (17.46±1.29 MPa). The results illustrated that the composite scaffold possessed biodegradability and can form hydroxyapatite by dynamic balance of Ca and P elements. The hemolysis tests demonstrate that materials are non-hemolytic and have good blood compatibility. Therefore, the developed composite scaffolds are safe medical inorganic materials, which can potentially be applied in bone tissue engineering.