Calcium phosphate coatings for bone regeneration

As a novel approach to repair and regenerate damaged and degraded bone tissue, tissue engineering has recorded tremendous growth for the last thirty years. This is an emerging interdisciplinary field applying the principles of biology and engineering to the development of viable substitutes that restore and maintain the functions of human bone tissues. Tissue engineering constructs usually are natural or synthetic scaffolds in combination with cells and/or growth factors. Ideally, the engineered bone, called bone graft substitute, becomes integrated within the patient, affording a potentially permanent and specific cure of the tissue. These engineered constructs are commercially attractive for their off-the-shelf availability in large quantities and relatively low production and storage costs. Bone-graft substitute should ideally be: biocompatible, to be accepted by the body without adverse tissue responses; osteoconductive, able to facilitate and guide new bone formation from the host bone; osteoinductive, able to induce new bone formation; bio-resorbable, and structurally similar to bone. This thesis contains two parts. The first part is to study the effects of the selected additives: trace elements (Chapter 2-5) and pDNA (Chapter 6) on the calcium phosphate materials, and the effects on in vitro cell behavior. The second part is to combine calcium phosphate with other synthetic material or scaffolds to produce a better biomaterial that meets both mechanical and bioactivity requirements for a successful bone graft substitute.