Mechanical and Biological Properties of Biphasic Calcium Phosphate Scaffold depending on Different Nanoparticle Fabrication Methods

Biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) is widely used as biomaterial for bone regeneration because of its favourable bioactivity and bioresorption property when compared to hydroxyapatite and b-tricalcium phosphate on their own. Two types of BCP are available in orthopedics and dentistry: chemically synthesized BCP (C-BCP) and mechanically mixed BCP (M-BCP). In this study, the mechanical and biological properties of these two types of BCP scaffold were compared. The scaffolds were characterized based on an evaluation of their surface morphology by means of SEM, and their compressive strength was determined in a universal testing machine. The cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation were measured in a cell-counting assay and alkaline phosphatase activity test. Compared to theM-BCP scaffold, the C-BCP scaffold showed enhanced compressive strength owing to the dense surface of struts. However, the C-BCP and M-BCP scaffolds were shown to be similar with regard to biological properties. This study concluded that the method applied to fabricate BCP nanoparticles influenced their size, the smaller size particles resulting in good mechanical properties thanks to their dense surface. However, the particle size did not influence the biological properties of the BCP scaffolds.