Hydroxyapatite scaffolds containing copper for bone tissue engineering

The current study involves fabrication and characterization of HA scaffolds containing different copper (Cu) content by ion exchange and 3D extrusion deposition technique. The fabricated pure HA and Cu-doped scaffolds (Cu–HA) were characterized by mechanical behavior, SEM, EDS, XRD, and FT-IR studies. The results show that the Cu-doped HA scaffolds show stronger compressive strength. In addition, the antibacterial properties and biological properties of these scaffolds were investigated in vitro. The antibacterial test results show that the addition of Cu in the HA scaffolds increased antibacterial activity, and the antibacterial properties of scaffolds significantly increased with the addition of Cu. The biocompatibility test results show that the 15Cu–HA scaffolds treated with 15% CuSO4 curing solution significantly inhibited of cell growth on day 7, while the 5Cu–HA scaffolds treated with 5% CuSO4 curing solution the cells observed good grown state on day 7. The 5Cu–HA scaffolds show stronger mechanical behavior, increased antibacterial properties and lower toxicity rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on day 7. So, the developed 5Cu–HA scaffolds can be used as a good biomaterial for bone tissue engineering.