Porous calcium phosphate glass microspheres for orthobiologic applications

Abstract

This manuscript highlights a simple cost-effective one-step process for manufacturing porous calcium phosphate-based glass microspheres with varying control over surface pores and fully interconnected porosity via a flame spheroidisation process. Moreover, a simple alteration of the processing parameters can produce microspheres which have a solid core with surface pores only. The tuneable porosity enabled control over their surface area, degradation profiles and hence ion release rates. The paper also shows that stem cells not only attach and proliferate but more importantly migrate to within the core of the porous microspheres, highlighting applications for bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Usefulness of Mesenchymal Cell Lines for Bone and Cartilage Regeneration Research

“…Nowadays, a high number of MSC lines that display specific characteristics and differentiation capabilities have been generated and are valuable tools as part of models of disease and tissue repairing strategies. Different MSC lines have been employed for testing [17,[20][21][22][23][24][25] or producing [26,27] engineered scaffolds for skeletal applications, and for both investigating the MSC differentiation process [28][29][30][31][32][33][34] and finding new ways to improve it [35][36][37][38][39]. Additionally, these cell lines have also been used for analyzing functional makers [19,40] or even for exploring their roles in different diseases, such as osteoarthritis [41,42].…”

In vitro cellular testing of strontium/calcium substituted phosphate glass discs and microspheres shows potential for bone regeneration

“…The dissolution behaviour of the PBG formulations studied here has been previously reported, showing a more stable PBG surface with the addition of SrO, with a weight loss ranging between 0.2% and 0.13% in 30 days for the discs (Patel et al, ). Evidence also suggests that the degradation rate of the glass increases with spherical geometries (Hossain et al, ; Islam, Hossain, Sharmin, Parsons, & Ahmed, ); however, in vivo studies would need to be conducted to establish how this could affect the regenerative potential of the material.…”

“…Overall, the findings of this study complemented previous works, which aimed to characterise the effect of gradually substituting CaO for SrO in a PBG system. More interestingly, our group has recently reported the manufacturing of PBG microspheres in highly porous conformation with larger surface area and increased degradation rate (Hossain et al, ). These microspheres have also shown the ability to encapsulate stem cells and will be further investigated for promoting cell growth and pore colonisation, to deliver enhanced advantages for bone tissue growth via a biomimetic environment.…”

Glass microparticle‐ versus microsphere‐filled experimental dental adhesives

“…The bulk glasses were ground into microparticles utilizing a ball milling machine (Retsch PM100, Haan, Germany) and then sieved to have a size range of 30–125 μm. To prepare the microspheres, the sieved microparticles were fed into the oxyacetylene flame of a thermal spray gun (Metallisation Ltd., Dudley, UK) using a hopper feeding system, as described elsewhere . Postmanufacture, the microspheres were collected from the collection tube, washed with ethanol, and dried overnight at 50 °C; see Figure (a).…”