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Novel self‐gelling injectable hydrogel/alpha‐tricalcium phosphate composites for bone regeneration: Physiochemical and microcomputer tomographical characterization
Author(s) -
Douglas Timothy E. L.,
Schietse Josefien,
Zima Aneta,
Gorodzha Svetlana,
Parakhonskiy Bogdan V.,
KhaleNkow Dmitry,
Shkarin Roman,
Ivanova Anna,
Baumbach Tilo,
Weinhardt Venera,
Stevens Christian V.,
Vanhoorne Valérie,
Vervaet Chris,
Balcaen Lieve,
Vanhaecke Frank,
Slośarczyk Anna,
Surmeneva Maria A.,
Surmenev Roman A.,
Skirtach Andre G.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.36277
Subject(s) - materials science , self healing hydrogels , gellan gum , calcium , polymer , composite material , cement , phosphate , bone cement , biomedical engineering , chemical engineering , calcium phosphate cement , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , medicine , food science , engineering , metallurgy
Mineralized hydrogels are increasingly gaining attention as biomaterials for bone regeneration. The most common mineralization strategy has been addition of preformed inorganic particles during hydrogel formation. This maintains injectability. One common form of bone cement is formed by mixing particles of the highly reactive calcium phosphate alpha‐tricalcium phosphate (α‐TCP) with water to form hydroxyapatite (HA). The calcium ions released during this reaction can be exploited to crosslink anionic, calcium‐binding polymers such as the polysaccharide gellan gum (GG) to induce hydrogel formation. In this study, three different amounts of α‐TCP particles were added to GG polymer solution to generate novel, injectable hydrogel‐inorganic composites. Distribution of the inorganic phase in the hydrogel was studied by high resolution microcomputer tomography (µCT). Gelation occurred within 30 min. α‐TCP converted to HA. µCT revealed inhomogeneous distribution of the inorganic phase in the composites. These results demonstrate the potential of the composites as alternatives to traditional α‐TCP bone cement and pave the way for incorporation of biologically active substances and in vitro and in vivo testing. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 822–828, 2018.