Osteoblastic cells colonization inside beta-TCP macroporous structures obtained by ice-templating

A casting method based on ceramic slurry ice-templating was used to create beta-tricalcium phosphate anisotropic oriented macroporous scaffolds. The freeze-casting method produces tubular interconnected pores with ellipsoidal shape. The tubular porosity structure is supposed to enhance cell invasion. Several samples with pore size ranging from 50 μm to 350 μm and porosity from 30% to 70% were synthesized using different processing parameters: dry matter and binder content of slurry and freezing rate. The osteoblastic cell colonisation into these samples was compared to that into classical scaffolds obtained from ceramic slurry impregnation of organic skeleton which allows the development of isotropic spherical porous structure with 250 to 600 μm pore diameter size. The analysis by scanning electron microscopy of cell invaded samples shows that the size of the pores of the ice-templated scaffolds is sufficiently large to enable fast osteoblastic cell colonisation.