Enrico B. Fava

Visiting researcher (Federal University of Santa Catarina – Florinanópolis, Brazil)

 Bioactive Glass-Polymer Systems for 3D Printing Bone Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

 

Supervisors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Aldo R. Boccaccini (FAU), Prof. Dachamir Hotza (UFSC), Prof. João Batista Rodrigues Neto (UFSC)

Bone diseases and fractures, particularly those related to osteoporosis, represent a major health challenge due to increasing life expectancy (Abbasi et al., 2020). Conventional treatments with autografts and allografts are limited by morbidity, high cost, and availability, driving the development of synthetic scaffolds as alternatives (Fu et al., 2011). The study aims to develop a phosphorus containing bioactive glass with the capability to release active ions (Ahmed et al., 2004; Kyffin et al., 2021) incorporated with polymeric materials for 3D printing of scaffolds. Following the glass synthesis, different compounds will be incorporated for ion release before mixing with a polymeric matrix of chitosan or alginate (Monavari et al., 2021) for 3D printing. Rheological characterization will ensure printability, while physicochemical, mechanical, and biological evaluations (XRD, SEM, TGA, DSC, cytotoxicity, degradation, and compression tests) will assess scaffold performance. The new 3D-printed scaffolds are expected to enable multifunctional systems with osteoconductive, antibacterial, and regenerative potential, advancing strategies for bone tissue engineering.

Abbasi, N., Hamlet, S., Love, R. M., & Nguyen, N. T. (2020). Porous scaffolds for bone regeneration. Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices, 5(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsamd.2020.01.007

Ahmed, I., Lewis, M., Olsen, I., & Knowles, J. C. (2004). Phosphate glasses for tissue engineering: Part 1. Processing and characterisation of a ternary-based P2O5-CaO-Na 2O glass system. Biomaterials, 25(3), 491–499. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0142-9612(03)00546-5

Fu, Q., Saiz, E., Rahaman, M. N., & Tomsia, A. P. (2011). Bioactive glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering: State of the art and future perspectives. Materials Science and Engineering C, 31(7), 1245–1256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2011.04.022

Kyffin, B. A., Pickup, D. M., Mountjoy, G., Foroutan, F., Abrahams, I., & Carta, D. (2021). Atomic-Scale Structural Characterization of Silver-Doped Phosphate-Based Glasses Prepared by Coacervation. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 125(22), 12256–12268. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c00363

Monavari, M., Homaeigohar, S., Fuentes-Chandía, M., Nawaz, Q., Monavari, M., Venkatraman, A., & Boccaccini, A. R. (2021). 3D printing of alginate dialdehyde-gelatin (ADA-GEL) hydrogels incorporating phytotherapeutic icariin loaded mesoporous SiO2-CaO nanoparticles for bone tissue engineering. Materials Science and Engineering C, 131(July), 112470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msec.2021.112470