PHA-based porous scaffold doped with hydroxyapatite and collagen designed for bone tissue regeneration

During this experimental thesis, organic/inorganic materials were prepared for bone tissue regeneration. By using salt leaching technique, highly porous composite scaffolds were produced, combining a polymer matrix (polyhydroxyalkanoates) with inorganic fillers (commercial hydroxyapatite, synthetized hydroxyapatite and biomemitetic mineralized collagen) in order to make the polymer matrix osteoinductive. The pore size and the filler distribution of the scaffolds were determined by environmental scanning microscopy (ESEM), the filler morphology was detected by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the scaffolds was determined by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the real content of inorganic filler present in the composite scaffolds was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The composite scaffolds preparation has shown to be effective for obtaining highly porous structures doped with very high amounts of fillers (40 wt%). So the prepared materials are promising and good candidate for bone tissue regeneration.