Mechanical stability of highly porous hydroxyapatite scaffolds during different stages of in vitro studies

Degradation properties of bone scaffolds are strongly related to cell growth, host response and tissue regeneration. However, bone formation is a very slow process and, in the first few weeks after implantation, the mechanical stability of the scaffold plays a key role for the success of the regeneration progression. In the present study, in vitro properties of highly porous hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds were analysed in terms of bioactivity and biodegradation by observing their microstructure, measuring the weight loss and evaluating their mechanical stability. HA scaffolds fabricated by sponge replica method have been incubated for different periods of time in Simulated Body Fluid and in tris-HCL buffer. The morphological and mechanical characterizations performed on the scaffolds before and after immersion demonstrated the scaffolds being bioactive and almost not biodegradable in four weeks in terms of weight loss and mechanical resistance.