Fabrication and Properties of Porous Collagen/Hyaluronic Composite Scaffolds Containing Nano-Bioactive Glass for Tissue Engineering

Abstract

In this work, nano-structured scaffolds were designed for tissue engineering using collagen, hyaluronic acid (HA) and nano-bioactive glass (NBAG) as their main components. The scaffold was prepared via freeze-drying method and the properties including morphology, porosity, compressive strength, swelling ratio and cytotoxicity in-vitro, were also evaluated. The composite scaffolds showed well interconnected macropores with the pore size of ranging from 100 to 500 μm. The porosity percent and swelling ability were decreased with the introduction of NBAG into the collagen/HA hydrogel; however, the compressive strength was enhanced. The cytotoxicity in-vitro study shows that the collagen-HA/NBAG scaffolds have good biocompatibility with improving effect on fibroblastic cells growth. It could be concluded that this scaffold fulfills the main requirements to be considered as a bone substitute.

Keywords:

• collagen
• hyaluronic acid
• nano-bioactive glass
• composite scaffold
• properties

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51262008, No.51202087, No.51364009), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No.12JJ2005, No.14JJ4048), the Planned Science and Technology Project of Hunan Province (Grant No.2012GK2017), the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 12A109, No.13K094).