Dramatic Improvement of the Mechanical Strength of Silane-Modified Hydroxyapatite-Gelatin Composites via Processing with Cosolvent.

ABSTRACT: Bone tissue engineering (BTE) requires a sturdy biomaterial for scaffolds for restoration of large bone defects. Ideally, the scaffold should have a mechanical strength comparable to the natural bone in the implanted site. We show that adding cosolvent during the processing of our previously developed composite of hydroxyapatite-gelatin with a silane cross-linker can significantly affect its mechanical strength. When processed with tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the cosolvent, the new hydroxyapatite-gelatin composite can demonstrate almost twice the compressive strength (97 vs 195 MPa) and biaxial flexural strength (222 vs 431 MPa) of the previously developed hydroxyapatite-gelatin composite (i.e., processed without THF), respectively. We further confirm that this mechanical strength improvement

SUBMITTER: Hu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5880507 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature