Lukas Petersen

Bachelor student

Fabrication and Characterization of composite scaffolds containing ion doped mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for bone regeneration with drug delivery potential

 

Supervisors: Dr. Qaisar Nawaz, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

In regenerative medicine, 3D porous scaffolds are used to mimic the bone structure and to promote cell attachment and tissue regeneration. In this regard, bioactive glasses (e.g. 45S5 bioactive glass) have attracted researchers’ attention as scaffold material, due to their excellent characteristics under physiological conditions such as osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity [1]. In this Bachelor’s thesis, mesoporous silica-calcia bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs) will be synthesized by using a micro-emulsion-assisted sol-gel approach [2]. Different biologically active ions will be considered to dope the basic silica-calcia system. Furthermore, bioactive glass scaffolds will be fabricated using a foam-replica technique [3]. Moreover, we will use a dip-coating approach to coat the scaffolds with the MBGNs. After the fabrication we will characterize the scaffolds in terms of morphology, mechanical properties, and in-vitro bioactivity among others.

[1] El-Rashidy, A.A.; Roether, J.A.; Harhaus, L.; et al. Regenerating bone with bioactive glass scaffolds: A review of in vivo studies in bone defect models. Acta Biomaterialia. 2017, 62, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2017.08.030

[2] Nawaz, Q.; Rehman, M.A.U.; Burkovski, A.; et al. Synthesis and characterization ofmanganese containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical
applications. J Mater Sci Mater Med. 2018, 29, 5, 64, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-018-6070-4

[3] Chen, Q.Z.; Thompson, I.D.; Boccaccini, A.R. 45S5 Bioglass-derived glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Biomaterials. 2006, 27,11, 2414-2425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2005.11.025h