Fabrication and Characterization of Nanostructure Bioceramic Composite Foam for Using in Tissue Engineering Hamed Ghomi انگلیسی h.ghomi@ma.iut.ac.ir Date of Submission: 2011/03/12 Department of Materials Engineering Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran Degree: M.Sc Language: Farsi Supervisor : Mohammadhossein Fathi (fathi@cc.iut.ac.ir ) Hossein Edris ( h-edris@cc.iut.ac.ir ) The new challenge in biomaterials is to enhance the body’s own regenerative capacity by stimulating genes that initiate repair at the site of damage or disease. Highly porous bioceramic scaffolds (foams) supply a framework for enhanced cell infiltration and migration throughout the scaffold, and act as a template for bone growth. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is characterized by its high biocompatibility and close chemical similarity to biological apatite . However, its reactivity with existing bone and the rate at which bone apposes and integrates with HA is relatively low. BGs are more reactive, degradable, osteoconductive, and show better bioactivity than HA. BGs could bond to hard and soft tissue and the degradation products of them could stimulate the production of growth factors, cell proliferation and activate the gene expression of osteoblast. The limiting factor in the use of BGs is the inherent brittleness of glass. If HA and BG are to be combined in an optimized tissue engineering scaffold, then the designed composite allows for the creation of bioresorbable and bioactive scaffolds with tailored physical and mechanical properties. Considering benefits of nanostructure bioceramics, in this study effort was focused on fabrication and characterization of nanostructure bioceramic composite foam. For this purpose, HA and BG nanopowders were synthesized by the sol-gel method and nanocomposite foams were prepared on addition of 63S BG to
