New macroporous calcium phosphate glass ceramic for guided bone regeneration

This work describes a method to obtain macroporous resorbable glass and glass ceramic scaffolds with controlled biodegradability for tissue engineering applications. The constructs consisted of glass and glass ceramics in the system P2O5–CaO–Na2O–TiO2 and they were prepared by foaming a slurry of glass particles by addition of a H2O2 solution, and subsequent sintering of the porous structures obtained. Different thermal treatments were applied to control the degree of devitrification of the glass. The resultant materials showed a porosity percentage between 40% and 55% with a wide variety of pores ranging from 20 to 500 μm in diameter as determined by SEM and Image Analysis. The resulting constructs were predominantly formed by a vitreous phase, although small amounts of calcium metaphosphate and pyrophosphates were detected by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy after the sintering process. The biological response was also evaluated by means of the MTT test, the material showed a non-cytotoxic effect.