Manufacture and evaluation of bioactive and biodegradable materials and scaffolds for tissue engineering

For tissue regeneration and tissue engineering applications, a number of bi oactive and biodegradable composites, either porous or non-porous, were fab ricated. The newly developed materials included tricalcium phosphate reinfo rced polyhydroxybutyrate and its copolymer, poorly crystallized hydroxyapat ite reinforced chitin, and plasma sprayed hydroxyapatite reinforced poly(L- lactic acid). It was shown that these new materials could be successfully p roduced using the manufacturing techniques adopted. In vitro experiments re vealed that the incorporation of bioceramic particles in biodegradable poly mers rendered the composites bioactive and significantly improved the abili ty of composites to induce the formation of bone-like apatite on their surf aces. Degradation of composite scaffolds in simulated body fluid was observ ed and could be due to the simultaneous degradation of polymer matrix and d issolution of bioceramic particles. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers.