Doped tricalcium phosphate bone tissue engineering scaffolds using sucrose as template and microwave sintering: enhancement of mechanical and biological properties

•Random porous TCP scaffolds are prepared by thermal decomposition of sucrose.•Additives prevents crack formation and enhances osteoinductivity of TCP in vitro.•Microwave sintering decreases open interconnected porosity of porous TCP scaffolds.•PCL improves toughness and osteoblastic differentiation of porous TCP scaffolds.

β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) is a widely used biocompatible ceramic in orthopedic and dental applications. However, its osteoinductivity and mechanical properties still require improvements. In this study, porous β-TCP and MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffolds were prepared by the thermal decomposition of sucrose. Crack-free cylindrical scaffolds could only be prepared with the addition of MgO and ZnO due to their stabilization effects. Porous MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffolds with a density of 61.39 ± 0.66%, an estimated pore size of 200 μm and a compressive strength of 24.96 ± 3.07 MPa were prepared by using 25 wt% sucrose after conventional sintering at 1250 °C. Microwave sintering further increased the compressive strength to 37.94 ± 6.70 MPa, but it decreased the open interconnected porosity to 8.74 ± 1.38%. In addition, the incorporation of polycaprolactone (PCL) increased 22.36 ± 3.22% of toughness while maintaining its compressive strength at 25.45 ± 2.21 MPa. Human osteoblast cell line was seeded on scaffolds to evaluate the effects of MgO/ZnO and PCL on the biological property of β-TCP in vitro. Both MgO/ZnO and PCL improved osteoinductivity of β-TCP. PCL also decreased osteoblastic apoptosis due to its particular surface chemistry. This novel porous MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffold with PCL shows improved mechanical and biological properties, which has great potential in bone tissue engineering applications.