Gerard Blanco López

Former visiting student (Universitat de Barcelona/Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya,Spain)

Development of PCL- Boron doped mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticle composite scaffolds

 

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

Bioactive glasses are promising biomaterials used in tissue engineering for tissue regeneration. They present bioactivity properties, making them feasible to use as implant material as they induce strong bonding to bone and in some cases to soft tissues. In this project, mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs) are fabricated in the SiO2-CaO systen doped with Boron. These MBGNs are produced using the micro-emulsion-assisted sol-gel approach [1]. Boron is a metalloid element that takes part in several metabolic processes, and the lack of boron ions is associated with deficient bone growth. Therefore, by using MBGNs doped with Boron, it is expected to obtain modified glasses with different degradation rates, cytotoxicity, and changes in their biocompatibility and bioactivity [2]. Once the B doped MBGNs are obtained, they will be used to produce composite scaffolds by combining them with polycaprolactone (PCL) using 3D printing. Afterwards, these composite scaffolds will be coated with a natural polymer to improve their suface biocompatibility. The scaffolds will be characterized in terms of morphology, in vitro bioactivity and cytocompatibility.

[1] Q. Nawaz, et al., Synthesis and characterization of manganese-containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 5 (2018).

[2] Balasubramanian, P., Büttner, T., Miguez Pacheco, V., & Boccaccini, A. R. Boron-containing bioactive glasses in bone and soft tissue engineering. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 38 (2018), 855–869.