Dziadek, Michal and Douglas, Timothy and Dziadek, Kinga and Zagrajczuk, Barbara and Serafim, Andrada and Stancu, Izabela-Cristina and Cholewa-Kowalska, Katarzyna (2020) Novel whey protein isolate-based highly porous scaffolds modified with therapeutic ion-releasing bioactive glasses. Materials Letters, 261: 127115. ISSN 0167-577X
MLBLUE_D_19_04331R1.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.
Download (1MB)
Abstract
In this work, for the first time, a material derived from food industry waste – whey protein isolate – and a material commonly used in bone regeneration – bioactive glasses – were combined to obtain novel composite biomaterials with potential applications in bone tissue engineering (BTE). Additionally, to obtain pro-angiogenic properties, sol–gel-derived BGs doped with Cu2+ and Co2+ ions were used. Using a simple gas foaming method, ready-to-use (sterile), bioactive scaffolds with high porosity (above 70%), fully connected pore networks, and pore size suitable for BTE applications (80–350 μm) were obtained. Furthermore, scaffolds showed additional functionalities – calcium phosphate-forming ability and gradual release of therapeutic ions. Porous WPI/BG composites showed great potential for use as novel bone substitutes.