COMPOSITE POLYMER-COATED MINERAL SCAFFOLDS FOR BONE REGENERATION: FROM MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION TO HUMAN STUDIES.

Bovine bone xenografts, made of hydroxyapatite (HA), were coated with poly(L-lactide-co-ε- caprolactone) (PLCL) and RGD-containing collagen fragments in order to increase mechanical properties, hydrophilicity, cell adhesion and osteogenicity. In vitro the scaffold microstructure was investigated with Environmental Scanning Electronic Microscopy (ESEM) analysis and micro tomography, while mechanical properties were investigated by means compression tests. In addition, cell attachment and growth within the three-dimensional scaffold inner structure were validated using human osteosarcoma cell lines (SAOS-2 and MG-63). Standard ISO in vivo biocompatibility studies were carried out on model animals, while bone regenerations in humans were performed to assess the efficacy of the product. All results from in vitro to in vivo investigations are here reported, underlining that this scaffold promotes bone regeneration and has good clinical outcome.