The effect of gelatin and hydroxyapatite ratios on the scaffolds´ porosity and mechanical properties

Previously, single phase scaffold for bone tissue engineering were widely used for clinical applications. However, single phase scaffold is not sufficiently bioactive and lack of mechanical integrity, thus it was not suitable for such purpose. Hence, a new approach had been taken to produce composite scaffold by combining two or more biomaterials. Our goal is to fabricate gelatin-hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds which are expected to have similar structure and function as natural bone, thus improve the criteria of scaffolds for hard tissue application. The focus of this project is on the fabrication of porous gelatin-HA scaffolds by mixing different amount of HA (10wt%, 20wt%, 30wt%, 40wt%, 50wt %) with fixed amount of gelatin solution (5wt %) through solvent casting and particulate leaching technique. The microstructures, porosity, and mechanical properties of the scaffolds were analyzed. It was observed in this preliminary study that the pores with size of 0.80μm-40.5μm were produced through this experiment. The porosity of composite scaffold was found to decrease form 71% to 69% depending on the percentage addition of HA. The mechanical properties composite scaffolds were assessed and it was found that, the Young´s Modulus of scaffolds were improved (2.3MPa, 4.9MPa, 9.3MPa, 25.3MPa and 31.4MPa) as the amount of HA increased. Thus, mechanical properties, porosity and size of pores were compromised by the addition of HA content in the composition.