A porous hydroxyapatite scaffold for bone tissue engineering: Physico-mechanical and biological evaluations

Polymer sponge replication method was used in this study to prepare the macroporous hydroxyapatite scaffolds with interconnected oval shaped pores of 100–300 μm with pore wall thickness of ∼50 μm. The compression strength of 60 wt.% HA loaded scaffold was 1.3 MPa. The biological response of the scaffold was investigated using human osteoblast like SaOS2 cells. The results showed that SaOS2 cells were able to adhere, proliferate and migrate into pores of scaffold. Furthermore, the cell viability was found to increase on porous scaffold compared to dense HA. The expression of alkaline phosphate, a differentiation marker for SaOS2 cells was enhanced as compared to nonporous HA disc with respect to number of days of culture. The enhanced cellular functionality and the ability to support osteoblast differentiation for porous scaffolds in comparison to dense HA has been explained in terms of higher protein absorption on porous scaffold.