Bioresorbable polymers:: Their potential as scaffolds for Bioglass® composites

Developing living tissue substitutes based on synthetic biodegradable polymers holds great promise in the field of tissue engineering. Poly-L-lactide acid, polyglycolic acid and their copolymers are the most well studied biocompatible, biodegradable polymers, which have been proved suitable substrates for many cell types. Novel synthesis and manufacturing techniques have been developed to give porous scaffolds with large void volumes for cell seeding and cell attachment. The combination of such polymers with bioactive Bioglass (R) particles has the potential of serving as bioactive tissue engineering scaffolds. There are three reasons for combining Bioglass (R) with resorbable polymers: 1.To achieve the desired 3-D shape of the tissue engineering construct, 2.To improve structural flexibility over otherwise brittle Bioglass (R) for eventual load bearing applications, 3.To control the rate of release of cations from Bioglass (R) to enhance osteogenesis. Composites of polyglycolic-polylactic acid with incorporated Bioglass (R) particles have shown better mechanical properties as compared with the neat copolymer. A new bioactive composite, which combines the advantages of Bioglass (R) and a resorbable polymer for tissue engineering applications, is described.