Porous hydroxyapatite/gelatine scaffolds with ice-designed channel-like porosity for biomedical applications

A cryogenic process, including freeze-casting and drying has been performed to obtain hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds (approx. diameter 10 mm, height 20 mm) with completely lamellar morphology due to preferentially aligned channel-like pores. Changing the process parameters that influence the cold transmission efficiency from the bottom to the top of the poured HA slurry, lamellar ice crystals with different thickness grew throughout the samples. After sintering, scaffolds with porosity features nearly resembling the ice ones were obtained. The interconnection of pores and the ability of the scaffolds to be rapidly penetrated by synthetic body fluid has been proven. Biohybrid HA/gel composites were prepared, infiltrating HA lamellar scaffolds (45–55 vol.% of porosity) with a 10wt.% solution of gelatine. Colouring genipine was used to cross-link gelatine and clearly show the distribution of the protein in the composite. The compressive mechanical properties of lamellar scaffolds improved with the addition of gelatine: the strength increased up to 5-6 times, while the elastic modulus and strain approximately doubled. The effectiveness of the cross-linkage has been preliminarily verified following scaffold degradation in synthetic body fluid.