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Inverted Colloidal Crystal Scaffolds New Substitutes for Bone Tissue Engineering
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Bone is a highly organised and specialised connective tissue with natural ability to
self-heal and regain functionality. This capacity is, however, exposed to a great number of
threats that can critically damage bone’s health and trigger the need for bone substitutes.
The present thesis aimed at the production of new bone scaffolds for tissue regeneration
using the Inverted Colloidal Crystal (ICC) structure as model system. ICCs are
3D structures, resultant from Colloidal Crystals (CC) inverse replication, that exhibit
uniform pore size, interconnected network and whose architectural design enhances the
cellular environment and vascular ingrowth.
Reported here is the use of organic (chitosan/chitin nanowhiskers) and inorganic
(hydroxyapatite) building materials to develop scaffolds comprising ceramic, polymeric
and composite matrices. Firstly, polystyrene microspheres are produced by simple microfluidic,
assembled in hexagonal close packed CC and then used as templates for all
scaffolds production. Ceramic based ICCs were developed using an hydroxyapatite solgel
system and sintering route that allowed simultaneous template calcination and matrix
formation. Polymeric based ICCs were subjected to hydrolytic degradation after being
produced with different molecular weight chitosans in order to understand polymer influence
on the scaffolds structural stability. Considering bone´s composite nature, ICCs
were constructed using hydroxyapatite nanorods suspended in chitosan solutions. Also,
structures whose materials have an imprinted liquid crystalline organization provided
by chitin nanowhiskers were developed inspired by bone collagen arrangement that contributes
to the tissue hierarchical architecture.
The morphological, biological and mechanical evaluation of such scaffolds contributes
to establish the path for the development of new ICC based products with potential to
complement or replace the currently clinically used bone substitutes and in that way
constitute valuable solutions for bone tissue regeneration.
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Palavras-chave
Bone tissue Engineering Inverted colloidal crystals Scaffolds Chitosan Hydroxyapatite