At the seminar this morning we had a presentation by Mr. Leonard Buer, from the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Zagreb in Croatia. His mentors, Dr. Hrvoje Ivankovic, Dr. Marica Ivankovic and Dr. Anamarija Rogina are Mentors of the group and collaborators of several researchers at CBIT. Leonard is staying with us only for one week, to run a few mechanical experiments and measure properties of new hydroxyapatite scaffolds substituted by magnesium and strontium coated with polycaprolactone.
Today he talked about the preparation of a highly porous biodegradable and biocompatible material based on substituted hydroxyapatite. In the lab in Zagreb they have developed a technique to prepare organic-inorganic composite materials from cuttlefish bone, by converting aragonite into hydroxyapatite, preserving the native porous structure of lamella and pillars for bone tissue engineering. The structure is reinforced by impregnating with a biodegradable polymer (polycaprolactone, polylactic acid or a blend of both) without closing the pores. They prepare different compositions of scaffolds, by partially substituting hydroxyapatite by magnesium (Mg2+) and strontium (Sr2+) at the same time within the inorganic porous structure.
The addition of magnesium does not affect cytotoxicity and hMSCs cultured within the scaffolds synthesize collagen and mineralize. Additionally it seems that osteocalcin expression is higher in the magnesium substituted scaffolds.
