Biocompatible and biodegradable scaffold based on polytrimethylene carbonate-tricalcium phosphate microspheres for tissue engineering.

Abstract Biocompatible polymers and drug delivery vehicles have been driving development in bone regeneration. However, most bone scaffolds show poor degradation and proliferation. In this study, a composite microsphere scaffold was prepared using vancomycin hydrochloride(VH)-loaded polytrimethylene carbonate(PTMC) microsphere (PTMC-VH). Adopting a thermal technique, a three-dimensional oleic acid-modified tricalcium phosphate (PTMC-OA-TCP)/PTMC-VH microsphere scaffold was prepared. It had a porosity of 41-47% and pore size of 129-154 μm. The highest drug loading and release efficiency were obtained with the scaffold produced using 2.4% polymer concentration and 0.5%polyvinyl alcohol. The scaffold with PTMC-VH microsphereshad enhancedmechanical properties, water absorption capacity, and degradation. In addition, the PTMC-OA-TCP scaffold had comparable performance with bone cement control in terms of bone regeneration in vivo. In summary, the prepared bioactive scaffolds, which had favorable mechanical properties and facilitated osteogenesis, could be a promising alternative for bone cement in bone tissue engineering.