3. Biomaterials for bone tissue-engineering Essay

3. Biomaterials for bone tissue-engineering - Essay Example Osseointegration means the ability to integrate into surrounding bones. The ideal condition is that the tissue should be reabsorbed and may be even replaced by the body’s own regenerated biological tissues. Bioactive inorganic materials like tricalcium phosphate, HA, bioactive glasses have a large capacity to be re-absorbed. This is definitely one of the positive points of inorganic materials. But the main problem is their brittle nature. This brittle nature means that the fracture toughness of the bones cannot b matched by these materials and thus is not ideal for picking heavy loads. Polymers such as collagen and hyaluronic acid are polymers which are interesting options for the use (Seeherman H, 2008).However they have weak mechanical properties and provide a possible risk of diseases if there is poor handling. Hydrogels are the kind of polymers which are creating great buzz about their use. They have many advantages including the one that chemical biofunctionalisation and cell encapsulation and delivery are very straightforward. In order for the biomaterial to be like a real bone the toughness of a polymer needs to be combined with the compressive strength of an inorganic material (Hollinger, 2004). This improves their mechanical properties and degradation profiles. Once the adequate biodegradable polymer has been selected the next step is to find a suitable processing technique. The processing methodology must not adversely affect the biocompatibility or the chemical properties of the chosen materials. Through the years a variety of processing techniques have been developed. Some of them will be discussed here by us. Solvent casting /Particulate Leaching – This method consists of dispersing calibrated materials such as sodium chloride or organic materials like saccharine particles in a polymer solution. The dispersion is processed after this either by casting or by using the method of freeze drying which results in