Scaffolds suitable for trabecular bone regeneration were produced via the gel-cast foaming process using the melt-derived glass composition SBP-3. A problem common to most bioactive glass compositions that undergo sintering in order to achieve scaffold form is that they crystallise, lowering bioactivity as well as incurring mechanical instability of the structure via unpredictable local degradation. The scaffolds did not exhibit significant bulk crystallisation upon sintering and the presence of potassium sodium sulphate crystals were not detected on the surface, which were formed with a previously studied composition ICIE16. The process was then optimised further and up-scaled to produce scaffolds in sufficient quantities for an in vivo ovine condyle defect study (undertaken at University College London by Prof. Allen Goodship and Prof. Gordon Blunn). Despite possessing a relatively high network connectivity - 2.31 - and low bioactivity from SBF studies, results from the in-vivo study concluded that the SBP-3 scaffolds performed better than the original 45S5 Bioglass granules, displaying 99 % bone aposition over a period of 91 days, in addition to the new bone more closely resembling the trabecular bone structure. Work was then carried out to simplify the process, switching from a chemical polymerisation process to a thermal gelation process, thus allowing for greater optimisation of the process.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:656380 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Tang, Hok Man |
| Contributors | Jones, Julian |
| Publisher | Imperial College London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/24844 |
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