Freeze casting of bioactive glass and ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

The main objectives of this dissertation were to explore the production of bioactive ceramic and glass scaffolds with oriented pore architectures by unidirectional freezing of suspensions, and to characterize the mechanical and biological performance of the scaffolds. Freezing of aqueous suspensions of hydroxyapatite (HA) or bioactive 13-93 glass particles resulted in the formation of scaffolds with a lamellar-type microstructure (pore width = 5--30 microm). The addition of polar organic solvents (such as 60 wt% dioxane) to the aqueous suspensions markedly changed the morphology and size of the oriented pores, giving scaffolds with a columnar-type microstructure and larger pore width (90--110 microm). The scaffolds showed a unique 'elastic--plastic' mechanical response in compression along the orientation direction, with large strain for failure (>20%) and strain rate sensitivity. For a similar porosity, the bioactive glass scaffolds had a higher strength than the HA scaffolds, presumably because of better sintering characteristics. Columnar bioactive glass scaffolds (porosity = 55--60%) had a compressive strength of 25 +/- 3 MPa. The columnar scaffolds with the larger pore width showed better ability than the lamellar scaffolds to support the proliferation and function of murine osteoblastic cells (MLO-A5 or MC3T3-E1). Subcutaneous implantation in the dorsum of rats showed abundant tissue ingrowth into the pores of the columnar scaffolds and integration of the scaffolds with surrounding tissue. The results indicate that bioactive 13-93 glass scaffolds with the columnar microstructure could be used for the repair of segmental defects in load-bearing bones.