41 research outputs found
Preclinical biological and physicochemical evaluation of two-photon engineered 3D biomimetic copolymer scaffolds for bone healing
No full textA major challenge in orthopedics is the repair of large non-union bone fractures. A promising therapy for this indication is the use of biodegradable bioinspired biomaterials that stabilize the fracture site, relieve pain and initiate bone formation and healing. This study uses a multidisciplinary evaluation strategy to assess immunogenicity, allergenicity, bone responses and physicochemical properties of a novel biomaterial scaffold. Two-photon stereolithography generated personalized custom-built scaffolds with a repeating 3D structure of Schwarz Primitive minimal surface unit cell with a specific pore size of ∼400 μm from three different methacrylated poly(D,L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) copolymers with lactide to caprolactone monomer ratios of 16 : 4, 18 : 2 and 9 : 1. Using in vitro and in vivo assays for bone responses, immunological reactions and degradation dynamics, we found that copolymer composition influenced the scaffold physicochemical and biological properties. The scaffolds with the fastest degradation rate correlated with adverse cellular effects and mechanical stiffness correlated with in vitro osteoblast mineralization. The physicochemical properties also correlated with in vivo bone healing and immune responses. Overall these observations provide compelling support for these scaffolds for bone repair and illustrate the effectiveness of a promising multidisciplinary strategy with great potential for the preclinical evaluation of biomaterials
Functional performance of a bi-layered chitosan-nano-hydroxyapatite osteochondral scaffold: a pre-clinical <i>in vitro</i> tribological study
No full textOsteochondral grafts are used for repair of focal osteochondral lesions. Autologous grafts are the gold standard treatment; however, limited graft availability and donor site morbidity restrict use. Therefore, there is a clinical need for different graft sources/materials which replicate natural cartilage function. Chitosan has been proposed for this application. The aim of this study was to assess the biomechanics and biotribology of a bioresorbable chitosan/chitosan-nano-hydroxyapatite osteochondral construct (OCC), implanted in an in vitro porcine knee experimental simulation model. The OCC implanted in different surgical positions (flush, proud and inverted) was compared to predicate grafts in current clinical use and a positive control consisting of a stainless steel graft implanted proud of the cartilage surface. After 3 h (10 800 cycles) wear simulation under a walking gait, subsidence occurred in all OCC samples irrespective of surgical positioning, but with no apparent loss of material and low meniscus wear. Half the predicate grafts exhibited delamination and scratching of the cartilage surfaces. No graft subsidence occurred in the positive controls but wear and deformation of the meniscus were apparent. Implanting a new chitosan-based OCC either optimally (flush), inverted or proud of the cartilage surface resulted in minimal wear, damage and deformation of the meniscus
Tubular Scaffold with Shape Recovery Effect for Cell Guide Applications
No full textTubular scaffolds with aligned polylactic acid (PLA) fibres were fabricated for cell guide applications by immersing rolled PLA fibre mats into a polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) solution to bind the mats. The PVAc solution was also mixed with up to 30 wt % β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) content. Cross-sectional images of the scaffold materials obtained via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the aligned fibre morphology along with a significant number of voids in between the bundles of fibres. The addition of β-TCP into the scaffolds played an important role in increasing the void content from 17.1% to 25.3% for the 30 wt % β-TCP loading, which was measured via micro-CT (µCT) analysis. Furthermore, µCT analyses revealed the distribution of aggregated β-TCP particles in between the various PLA fibre layers of the scaffold. The compressive modulus properties of the scaffolds increased from 66 MPa to 83 MPa and the compressive strength properties decreased from 67 MPa to 41 MPa for the 30 wt % β-TCP content scaffold. The scaffolds produced were observed to change into a soft and flexible form which demonstrated shape recovery properties after immersion in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) media at 37 °C for 24 h. The cytocompatibility studies (using MG-63 human osteosarcoma cell line) revealed preferential cell proliferation along the longitudinal direction of the fibres as compared to the control tissue culture plastic. The manufacturing process highlighted above reveals a simple process for inducing controlled cell alignment and varying porosity features within tubular scaffolds for potential tissue engineering applications
A review of natural fibres and biopolymer composites : progress, limitations, and enhancement strategies
No full textThe interest in natural fibres and biopolymers for developing bio-composites has greatly increased in recent years, motivated by the need to reduce the environmental impact of traditional synthetic, fossil fuel-derived materials. However, several limitations associated with the use of natural fibres and polymers should be addressed if they are to be seriously considered mainstream fibre reinforcements. These include poor compatibility of natural fibres with polymer matrices, variability, high moisture absorption, and flammability. Various surface treatments have been studied to tackle these drawbacks, such as alkalisation, silane treatment, acetylation, plasma treatment, and polydopamine coating. This review paper considers the classification, properties, and limitations of natural fibres and biopolymers in the context of bio-composite materials. An overview of recent advancements and enhancement strategies to overcome such limitations will also be discussed, with a focus on mechanical performance, moisture absorption behaviour, and flammability of composites. The limitations of natural fibres, biopolymers, and their bio-composites should be carefully addressed to enable the widespread use of bio-composites in various applications, including electronics, automotive, and construction
A Review of Natural Fibres and Biopolymer Composites: Progress, Limitations, and Enhancement Strategies
No full textThe interest in natural fibres and biopolymers for developing bio-composites has greatly increased in recent years, motivated by the need to reduce the environmental impact of traditional synthetic, fossil fuel-derived materials. However, several limitations associated with the use of natural fibres and polymers should be addressed if they are to be seriously considered mainstream fibre reinforcements. These include poor compatibility of natural fibres with polymer matrices, variability, high moisture absorption, and flammability. Various surface treatments have been studied to tackle these drawbacks, such as alkalisation, silane treatment, acetylation, plasma treatment, and polydopamine coating. This review paper considers the classification, properties, and limitations of natural fibres and biopolymers in the context of bio-composite materials. An overview of recent advancements and enhancement strategies to overcome such limitations will also be discussed, with a focus on mechanical performance, moisture absorption behaviour, and flammability of composites. The limitations of natural fibres, biopolymers, and their bio-composites should be carefully addressed to enable the widespread use of bio-composites in various applications, including electronics, automotive, and construction
Improved phosphate‐based glass fiber performance achieved through acid etch/polydopamine treatment
No full textPhosphate based glass fibres (PGF) are of interest as reinforcements for degradable implants, but have seen limited application due to their rapid loss of strength when subjected to aqueous conditions. Previous studies have utilised heat treatments to improve longer term strength retention at a significant cost to initial strength. In this study, acid etching is used to recover the initial fibre strength after heat treatment and a subsequent coating of polydopamine is applied to provide longer term retention of this recovered strength. After an initial loss of strength after heat treatment (1135-> 509 MPa), an optimised combination of acid treatment and polydopamine coating was able to recover to approximately 85% of the initial strength (969 MPa). The result was significant in comparison to acid treatment (647 MPa) or coating (688 MPa) alone. The combined acid/coating treatment was demonstrated to maintain fibre properties for at least 14 days, although the amount of polydopamine coating was observed to decrease over this period. The approach reported here is of importance as it offers the require
Developing highly nanoporous titanate structures via wet chemical conversion of DC magnetron sputtered titanium thin films
No full text© 2020 The Authors Titanate structures have been widely investigated as biomedical component surfaces due to their bioactive, osteoinductive and antibacterial properties. However, these surfaces are limited to Ti and its alloys, due to the nature of the chemical conversion employed. The authors present a new method for generating nanoporous titanate structures on alternative biomaterial surfaces, such as other metals/alloys, ceramics and polymers, to produce bioactive and/or antibacterial properties in a simple yet effective way. Wet chemical (NaOH; 5 M; 60 °C; 24 h) conversion of DC magnetron sputtered Ti surfaces on 316L stainless steel were investigated to explore effects of microstructure on sodium titanate conversion. It was found that the more equiaxed thin films (B/300) generated the thickest titanate structures (ca. 1.6 μm), which disagreed with the proposed hypothesis of columnar structures allowing greater NaOH ingress. All film parameters tested ultimately generated titanate structures, as confirmed via EDX, SEM, XPS, XRD, FTIR and Raman analyses. Additionally, the more columnar structures (NB/NH & B/NH) had a greater quantity of Na (ca. 26 at.%) in the top portion of the films, as confirmed via XPS, however, on average the Na content was consistent across the films (ca. 5–9 at.%). Film adhesion for the more columnar structures (ca. 42 MPa), even on polished substrates, were close to that of the FDA requirement for plasma-sprayed HA coatings (ca. 50 MPa). This study demonstrates the potential of these surfaces to be applied onto a wide variety of material types, even polymeric materials, due to the lower processing temperatures utilised, with the vision to generate bioactive and/or antibacterial properties on a plethora of bioinert materials
Phosphate glass fibres and their composites
No full textAn overview of the research conducted utilising phosphate glass fibres (PGFs), their manufacturing processes and utilisation potential for biomedical applications is presented in this chapter. Phosphate glasses of varying compositions in the form of fibrous structures alone and as fibrous reinforcements within composites are discussed. This chapter also highlights the methodologies used for the manufacture of these resorbable glass fibres and their composites. The advantages of using bioresorbable fibres in terms of their mechanical, dissolution, ion release, and in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility properties for the replacement, augmentation, guidance and growth of both hard and soft tissue in repair applications are also presented
Accelerated in vitro degradation properties of polylactic acid/phosphate glass fibre composites
No full textDegradation properties were studied for polylactic acid (PLA) and phosphate glass fibre (40P₂O₅-24MgO-16CaO-16Na₂O-4Fe₂O₃, denoted as P40) reinforced unidirectional (UD) and randomly mat (RM) PLA composites using phosphate buffer saline (PBS) media over a range of temperatures from 21 to 85 A degrees C. Glass transition and melting temperatures for PLA decreased from 61.3 and 167.4 to 52.7 and 151.6 A degrees C, respectively, and crystallinity increased from 9.2 to 58.3 % during 3 days of degradation period in PBS media at 85 A degrees C. Appearance of sharp crystalline peaks after degradation at higher temperatures which was confirmed via X-ray diffraction analysis was also indicative of increase in crystallinity. However, flexural strength decreased by approximately 20 % (for PLA) and by around 50 % (P40 RM and P40 UD composites) of the initial strength after degradation in PBS at 37 A degrees C. No significant changes in mechanical properties were observed before and after degradation of composites at 21 A degrees C for 56 days. Monomodal molecular weight distribution for the PLA before and after degradation in PBS at 37 A degrees C was replaced by bimodal after degradation at higher temperatures. Arrhenius equation applied for the change in molecular weight of the polymer and composite samples and the obtained degradation activation energies were 85.4, 78.7 and 74.1 kJ mol(-1) for PLA within PLA alone, P40 RM and P40 UD composites, respectively. Time prediction was applied to correlate short-term degradation (at elevated temperatures) to the long-term effects (at 37 A degrees C) using both 'tipping point' and molecular weight as co-ordinates
