Osteogenic priming potential of bovine hydroxyapatite sintered at different temperatures for tissue engineering applications

Bovine hydroxyapatite, a widely used scaffold in tissue engineering, is sintered at varied temperatures (600 °C, 700 °C, 750 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C and 1000 °C) and was evaluated for its osseo-integration potential with human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells. The cell attachment, distribution, morphology, and osteogenic marker assays were analysed. SEM analysis on day 11 revealed the porous structure and well-defined equiaxed HAp grain morphology and its affinity for cell attachment. While confocal microscopy showed viable cells on all samples, the proliferation assay indicated that cells in monolayer is significantly higher on day 11 and 15 than the scaffold (p < 0.05). Significant differences were observed only between certain groups (750:600 and 750:1000) at day 11, however, no difference was observed between the groups after day 15. Osteogenic marker assays revealed that the bovine scaffold sintered at 750 °C exhibited superior osteoinductivity than others. These findings indicate that the bovine HAp sintered at 750 °C may act as a potential biomaterial for possible tissue engineering applications.