Potential Applications of Polymer / Nanocrystalline Hydroxyapatite Based Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering: Effect of Porosity
AbstractIn recent years, significant progress has been performed in designing and producing polymer/ceramic based 3D porous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Conventional metals used in hard tissue applications currently are unsatisfactory due to density and mechanical mismatch between the implant and the hard tissues. Therefore, implant materials with higher mechanical strength than bone result in stress shielding. Moreover, some components of these materials might be toxic under in-vivo conditions. Polymer/nano-hydroxyapatite composites are currently investigated to solve the problems arising from the conventionally used biometals. This study investigates the contribution of pore parameters (Total porosity, pore size, pore distribution, pore morphology) on various characteristics of scaffolds for hard tissue applications.