Bio-Application of Poly (Vinyl Alcohol)/Biphasic Calcium Phosphate Scaffold as Bone Tissue Replacement

Abstract

Background: Porous scaffolds composed of poly (vinyl alcohol)/Biphasic calcium phosphate (PVA/BCP) were prepared for bone tissue engineering. The effect of BCP was investigated on the morphology of pores, porosity, compression strength, swelling ratio, biodegradation, bioactivity, and in vivo blood count. Objective: the aim of the article is to prepare a porous scaffold with good mechanical properties and suitable for the living body by having biodegradable, bioactive, and biocompatible properties. Methods: The scaffold of PVA foam was prepared using 4g of PVA (Central Drug House, M.W. 13000-23000, Viscosity 3.5-4.5, Hydrolysis 87-89 %, PH 4.5-6.5, India) dissolved in 24 ml distilled water with stirrer for 5 minutes. The biphasic-calcium phosphate (BCP) (Ying Tong Chem and Tech, LTD, Density 3.14 g/cm3, China) was added to the solution with heat stirring for 5 minutes with a ratio of 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.25 with respect to the weight of PVA as shows in Table 1. The sulfuric acid (Central Drug House, M.W. 98.08, India) of (8 ml) was added drop by drop using a catalyzer. The citric acid (Central Drug House, M.W. 192.13, India) was added to the mixture with 24g to create esterification bonding. Results: The results showed that the scaffold using BCP had uniform pore size distribution, suitable porosity up to 67%, and showed high swelling ratio. The scaffolds were of biodegradable nature and almost degraded by about 37.5% in four weeks. The scaffold was biologically active in terms of the presence of calcium phosphate in the hydroxyapatite phase as in bone. The in vivo biocompatibility of the PVA/BCP scaffold was tested by comparing the blood count with the normal range of blood in rabbits. After 14 days, the Blood Urea, Creatinine, A total of Bilirubin, and Lymphocytes were higher than the control. Conclusion: The addition of BCP powder has a positive effect on porosity and pore size. The compression strength value increased significantly with the use of BCP from 2.12 to 5.29 MPa. The scaffolds show good biodegradation and well bioactivity. The culture of the biomaterial caused toxicity or an acute inflammatory response, as the blood test results showed that there was infiltration of polymorphous leukocytes, lymphocytes, macrophages, and fibroblasts.