Sintered fluorapatite scaffolds as an autograft ‐like engineered bone graft

AbstractHydroxyapatite (HA)-based materials are widely used as bone substitutes due to their inherent biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, and bio-absorption properties. However, HA scaffolds lack compressive strength when compared to autograft bone. It has been shown that the fluoridated form of HA, fluorapatite (FA), can be sintered to obtain this desired strength as well as slower degradation properties. Also, FA surfaces have been previously shown to promote stem cell differentiation toward an osteogenic lineage. Thus, it was hypothesized that FA, with and without stromal vascular fraction (SVF), would guide bone healing to an equal or better extent than the clinical gold standard. The regenerative potentials of these scaffolds were tested in 32 Lewis rats in a femoral condylar defect model with untreated (negative), isograft (positive), and commercial HA as controls. Animals were survived for 12  weeks post-implantation. A semi-quantitative micro-CT analysis was developed to quantify the percent new bone formation within the defects. Our model showed significantly higher (p <  .05) new bone depositions in all apatite groups compared to the autograft group. Overall, the FA group had the most significant new bone deposition, while the differences between HA, FA, and FA + SVF were insignificant (p >  .05). Histological observations supported the micro-CT findings and highlighted the presence of healthy bone tissues without interposing capsules or intense...
Source: Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials - Category: Materials Science Authors: Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research