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Natural calcium phosphates derived from fish wastes are a promising material for biomedical application. However, their sintered ceramics are not fully characterized in terms of mechanical and biological properties. In this study, natural calcium phosphate was synthesized through a thermal calcination process from salmon fish bone wastes. The salmon-derived calcium phosphates (sCaP) were sintered at different temperatures to obtain natural calcium phosphate bioceramics and then were investigated in terms of their microstructure, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. In particular, this work is concerned with the effects of grain size on the relative density and microhardness of the sCaP bioceramics. Ca/P ratio of the sintered sCaP ranged from 1.73 to 1.52 when the sintering temperature was raised from 1000 to 1300 °C. The crystal phase of all the sCaP bioceramics obtained was biphasic and composed of hydroxyapatite (HA) and tricalcium phosphate (TCP). The density and microhardness of the sCaP bioceramics increased in the temperature interval 1000–1100 °C, while at temperatures higher than 1100 °C, these properties were not significantly altered. The highest compressive strength of 116 MPa was recorded for the samples sintered at 1100 °C. In vitro biocompatibility was also examined in the behavior of osteosarcoma (Saos-2) cells, indicating that the sCaP bioceramics had no cytotoxicity effect. Salmon-derived biphasic calcium phosphates (BCP) have the potential to contribute to the development of bone substituted materials.

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Sintered bodies of hydroxyapatite, derived from calcinated bovine bone (BHA) and doped with 0.5 and 1 wt% Y2O3, were prepared. Measurements of density, compression strength, and microhardness, along with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were carried out. The experimental results showed that BHA doping with yttria favors formation of glassy phase, which advances sintering and results in a dense and reinforced BHA matrix. The best mechanical properties were achieved after sintering at 1200°C for compressive strength (82MPa) and 1300°C for microhardness (672HV). These results are better than pure BHA or composites of hydroxyapatite with Y2O3-stablized zirconia, qualifying yttria (as dopant of BHA) for further in vitro and in vivo experimentation.