Bioactive glass microspheres as reinforcement for improving the mechanical properties and biological performance of poly(ε‐caprolactone) polymer for bone tissue regeneration

Abstract

This study examined the utility of sol-gel-derived bioactive glass microspheres (BGMs) as a reinforcement to improve the mechanical properties and biological performance of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) polymer. All of the PCL-BGMs composites produced, with a variety of BGMs contents (10, 20, and 30 wt %), showed a uniform distribution of the BGMs in the PCL matrix, particularly owing to their spherical shape and small size. This led to a considerable increase in the elastic modulus from 93 ± 12 MPa to 635 ± 179 MPa with increasing BGMs content from 0 to 30 wt %. Furthermore, the addition of the BGMs to the PCL polymer significantly increased the hydrophilicity of the PCL-BGMs composites, which led to a higher water absorption and degradation rate. The PCL-BGMs composite with a BGMs content of 30 wt % showed vigorous growth of apatite crystals with a high aspect ratio on its surface after soaking in the simulated body fluid for 7 days, resulting in the creation of a porous carbonate hydroxyapatite layer.

Investigation of emulsified, acid and acid-alkali catalyzed mesoporous bioactive glass microspheres for bone regeneration and drug delivery

“…Recently, mesoporous bioactive glass microspheres (MBGMs) have attracted tremendous research interests as promising materials for bone tissue regeneration and drug carriers [4][5][6][7][8]. Compared with irregular bioactive glasses particles, spherical bioactive glasses (SBG) exhibit enhanced bioactivity, hemostatic activity [4], high drug-loading capacity [6] as well as osteogenic potential [9] due to their high surface area and regular morphology which also contribute to the uniform distribution in organic matrix (poly(ε-caprolactone), PCL) and significantly improved mechanical strength of PCL-SBG composite [10].…”

Physico-chemical and biological studies on three-dimensional porous silk/spray-dried mesoporous bioactive glass scaffolds

“…Mesoporous bioactive glass particles with spherical shape and narrow size distribution with the mean size of 2.7 mm were successfully synthesized by combining the sol-gel method with the aerosol-assisted spray drying technique. The spherical morphology allowed the SD-MBG particles to be uniformly dispersed in the silk fibroin matrix without the formation of large aggregates, as evidenced from the micro-CT, at variance with the use of irregular shaped particles [30].…”

“…Likewise, nanofiber morphology of bioglass showed to have greater bioactivity and mechanical stability compared with conventional bioglass [29]. Interestingly, spherical shaped bioactive glass microspheres showed to improve the mechanical and bioactivity of polymeric 2D structures [30]. Very recently aerosol-assisted methods have been proposed for the synthesis of mesoporous bioactive glass particles in the form of highly reproducible spherical shaped micron sized particles.…”

Biomaterials Obtained by Gelation

“…A variety of tough composite biomaterials were made of sol-gel bioglass particles dispersed in PMMA ; gelatin and chitosan (Gao et al 2013), PLA, PGA, and their copolymers (PLGA) (Jones 2013); poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) (Lei et al 2012); and freeze-cast collagen (Lee et al 2015). All were capable of producing apatite in a SBF fluid.…”