Abstract
Bone has a remarkable capacity to heal. However, in some instances the amount of bone which is needed to heal exceeds its healing capacity. Due to reported issues with current treatments there is continued research into alternative approaches with a view to producing an off the shelf alternative to the gold standard autologous bone transplants. The current investigated the use of a chitosan/hydroxyapatite scaffold, which was used to covalently bone morphogenetic protein and vascular endothelial growth factor using a UV crosslinking process. Results indicate that the incorporation of hydroxyapatite increased the mechanical properties of the scaffold compared to chitosan alone. Furthermore, crosslinking was confirmed using swelling studies and FTIR analysis. Elisa indicated that physiological doses of BMP were released after 10 days while in vitro testing did not indicate a cytotoxic response to the scaffold. In vivo testing in a rat femoral defect model indicated the efficacy of the treatment with scaffolds containing BMP and VEGF in combination resulting in more bone in the defect compared to the scaffold alone 8 weeks post-surgery.
