Coupling mechanical competence and bioresorbability in Bioglass®-derived tissue engineering scaffolds

An ideal tissue engineering scaffold that provides mechanical support temporarily and biodegrades in a controllable manner upon implantation using Bioglass® was investigated. Tissue engineering promotes the regeneration ability of host human tissue through a designed biodegradable scaffold that is populated with relevant cells and signaling molecules. It was observed that a transformation of a mechanically competent crystalline phase to a biodegradable amorphous calcium phosphate occurs in a biological environment at low temperature in a Bioglass®-based foams. A tailored phase transformation accelerated by the high surface energy in a porous network can be utilized to achieve optimal properties in a scaffold.