NOVEL SILICA-POLYMER COMPOSITES AS POROUS SCAFFOLDS IN TISSUE ENGINEERING

Bone tissue engineering is a rapidly developing area. Engineering bone typically uses an artificial extracellular matrix (scaffold); osteoblasts or cells that can become osteoblasts, and regulating factors that promote cell attachment, differentiation, and mineralized bone formation. Among them, highly porous scaffolds play a critical role in cell seeding, proliferation, and new 3D-tissue formation. In this thesis, innovative composites which combine biodegradable polymers (e.g. pectin, iota-carrageenan) and silica based gels are created. Comparing previous materials, this type material possesses appropriate mechanical properties (elastic modulus and compressive modulus) to match native bones. Excellent architectural property (e.g. porosity, pore size, interconnectivity, and pore-wall microstructures) of this type material is designed to promote cell regeneration. Consequently it is believed the innovative composites should be considered as an alternative for bone tissue engineering applications in the near future