Preparation and Characterization of Demineralized Bone Particle Impregnated Poly(L-lactide) Scaffolds

In order to endow with new bioactive functionality from demineralized bone particle (DBP) as natural source to poly(L-lactide) (PLA) synthetic biodegradable polymer, porous DBP/PLA as natural/synthetic composite scaffolds were prepared and compared by means of the emulsion freeze drying and solvent casting/salt leaching methods for the possibility of the application of tissue engineered bone and cartilage. For the emulsion freeze drying method, it was observed that the pore size decreased in the order of 79μm (PLA control) > 47 μm (20% of DBP) > 23 μm (40% of DBP) > 15 μm (80% of DBP). Porosities as well as specific pore areas decreased with increasing the amount of DBP. It can be explained that DBP acts like emulsifier resulting in stabilizing water droplet in emulsion. For the solvent casting/salt leaching method, a uniform distribution of well interconnected pores from the surface to core region were observed the pore size of 80-70 μm independent with DBP amount. Porosities as well as specific pore areas also were almost same. For pore size distribution by the mercury intrusion porosimeter analysis between the two methods, the pore size distribution of the emulsion freeze drying method was broader than that of the solvent casting/salt leaching method due to the mechanism of emulsion formation. Scaffolds of PLA alone, DBP/PLA of 40 and 80%, and DBP powder were implanted on the back of athymic nude mouse to observe the effect of DBP on the induction of cells proliferation by hematoxylin and eosin staining for 8 weeks. It was observed that the effect of DBP/PLA scaffolds on bone induction are stronger than PLA scaffolds, even though the bone induction effect of DBP/PLA scaffold might be lowered than only DBP powder, that is to say, in the order of DBP only > DBP/PLA scaffolds of 40 and 80% DBP > PLA scaffolds only for osteoinduction activity. In conclusion, it seems that DBP plays an important role for bone induction in DBP/PLA scaffolds for the application of tissue engineering area.