Study of in vitro degradation of brushite cements scaffolds.

An interest path to fabricate supports for tissue engineering is to foam calcium phosphate cement's pastes leading to an increase on material's total porosity and interconnectivity which facilitates cells' adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. The aim of this work is to develop scaffolds of brushite cement and to evaluate its in vitro degradation rate. Macroporosity was obtained by foaming the liquid phase with different non-ionic surfactants (Tween 80 and Lutensol ON-110). The foam stability was achieved by adding chitosan. The scaffolds were immersed in Ringers(®) solution during 7, 14, 21 and 28 days and samples' microstructure, weight loss, mechanical resistance and apparent porosity were evaluated. Both scaffolds presented interconnected macropores with sizes ranging from 100 to 360 µm and total porosities higher than 60%. These properties could facilitate cell infiltration, bone growth and vascularization. The scaffolds obtained in this work should be considered as promising materials for application in bone tissue engineering.