Lukas Hofer

In comparison to bioactive glasses (BGs) based on silica, BGs containing boron trioxide as glass-former are considered to improve bone growth and development [1]. It has been shown that boron has higher bioactivity, stimulates wound healing and accelerates bone growth. Despite the mentioned advantages, boron-based BGs show low mechanical strength. One way to increase the strength of highly porous BG scaffolds is the coating with a biopolymer, as investigated by Boccaccini’s group for many years (see [2] for example). This project will focus on the examination of scaffolds consisting of the 13-93-B3 composition with different polymer coatings, and morphological, chemical and mechanical characterizations will be performed on the obtained scaffold.

[1] 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 (2019) 855-869.

[2] Bretcanu, O., et al., In vitro biocompatibility of 45S5 Bioglass®‐derived glass-ceramic scaffolds coated with poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate), Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine 3 (2009) 139-148.