Synthesis and characterization of acid polyurethane-hydroxyapatite composites for biomedical applications

This article aims to optimize the synthesis parameters and to establish the appropriate value of pressure for the design of polyurethane/hydroxyapatite organic matrix composites with an enhanced thermal and chemical stability. Strong interactions between Ca2+ ions and COO- groups are favoured at 60 atm. For the first time, the potential of polyurethane/hydroxyapatite material to be used as synthetic scaffold for bone cancer diagnosis was tested. The ability of polyurethane/hydroxyapatite coatings to be used as substrates for N2a cells attachment was studied using inverted optical microscopy. N2a cells presented a high birefringence and projected small prolongations of the soma comparable to control conditions, thus indicating the healthy state of the cells seeded on the composite substrates, especially in the case of composites prepared at 60-80 atm.