Doped tricalcium phosphate bone tissue engineering scaffolds using sucrose as template and microwave sintering: enhancement of mechanical and biological properties

beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) is a widely used biocompatible ceramic in orthopedic and dental applications. However, its osteoinductivity and mechanical properties still require improvements. In this study, porous beta TCP and MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffolds were prepared by the thermal decomposition of sucrose. Crack-free cylindrical scaffolds could only be prepared with the addition of MgO and ZnO due to their stabilization effects. Porous MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffolds with a density of 6139 +/- 0.66%, an estimated pore size of 200 mu m and a compressive strength of 24.96 +/- 3.07 MPa were prepared by using 25 wt% sucrose after conventional sintering at 1250 degrees C. Microwave sintering further increased the compressive strength to 37.94 +/- 6.70 MPa, but it decreased the open interconnected porosity to 8.74 +/- 138%. In addition, the incorporation of polycaprolactone (PCL) increased 2236 +/- 3.22% of toughness while maintaining its compressive strength at 25.45 +/- 2.21 MPa. Human osteoblast cell line was seeded on scaffolds to evaluate the effects of MgO/ZnO and PCL on the biological property of (beta-TCP in vitro. Both MgO/ZnO and PCL improved osteoinductivity of beta-TCP. PCL also decreased osteoblastic apoptosis due to its particular surface chemistry. This novel porous MgO/ZnO-TCP scaffold with PCL shows improved mechanical and biological properties, which has great potential in bone tissue engineering applications. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.