Influence of the type of manufacturing technique on the porosity and interconnectivity of hydroxyapatite scaffolds

Tissue engineering for bone regeneration requires the use of platforms called scaffolds that serve as a support for the invasion of new cells in which a possible exchange of fluids and nutrients can occur. To this end, the scaffolds must have characteristics such as an adequate pore size, porosity. The aim of this research was to produce hydroxyapatite scaffolds using the gel-casting technique and the gel-casting technique combined with the infiltration of polymer foams to determine how these manufacturing methods influence the pore size, percentage of porosity and interconnectivity. The influence of the percentage of solids and monomer type on the aforementioned characteristics was also evaluated. It was found that such characteristics depend on factors that are inherent to the technique used. Thus, for the gel-casting technique the viscosity of the slurry, the amount and stability of the foam produced and the percentage of solids were the influential factors. However, for the gel-casting combined with the nfiltration of foam technique, the determining factor was the type of polymer foam used as a template.