Biosurfactants as foaming agents in calcium phosphate bone cements

The idea of using biosurfactants to obtain highly porous, foamed calcium phosphate cements (fCPCs) is novel. The popularity of these compounds is mainly attributed to their biological activity such as anticancer or antibacterial properties. In our study, it was investigated how the functionalization of cements, based on α-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP), with non-ionic biosurfactants such as sucrose ester S0112 and saponin from Quillaja bark affected the physicochemical as well as biological properties of cement-type materials. Foaming with these selected surface active agents led to highly porous fCPCs (open porosity >60 vol%) with compressive strength values ranging from 0.2 to 3.3 MPa and did not influence negatively the bioactive potential of the cements. Results showed that the sucrose ester had a positive effect on all studied cell types (osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 and preosteoblasts MC3T3-E1), while the effect of the saponin differed depending on the origin of the cells (cancerous or non-cancerous). The obtained results shed new light on the use of biosurfactants as additives to CPCs and pave the way for further studies, especially in vivo.