Fabrication of 3D porous SF/β-TCP hybrid scaffolds for bone tissue reconstruction

Bio‐ceramic is a biomaterial actively studied in the field of bone tissue engineering. But, only certain ceramic materials can resolve the corrosion problem and possess the biological affinity of conventional metal biomaterials. Therefore, the recent development of composites of hybrid composites and polymers has been widely studied. In this study, we aimed to select the best scaffold of silk fibroin and β‐TCP hybrid for bone tissue engineering. We fabricated three groups of scaffold such as SF (silk fibroin scaffold), GS (silk fibroin/small granule size of β‐TCP scaffold) and GM (silk fibroin/medium granule size of β‐TCP scaffold), and we compared the characteristics of each group. During characterization of the scaffold, we used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for structural analysis. We compared the physiological properties of the scaffold regarding the swelling ratio, water uptake and porosity. To evaluate the mechanical properties, we examined the compressive strength of the scaffold. During in vitro testing, we evaluated cell attachment and cell proliferation (CCK‐8). Finally, we confirmed in vivo new bone regeneration from the implanted scaffolds using histological staining and micro‐CT. From these evaluations, the fabricated scaffold demonstrated high porosity with good inter‐pore connectivity, showed good biocompatibility and high compressive strength and modulus. In particular, the present study indicates that the GM scaffold using β‐TCP accelerates new bone regeneration of implanted scaffolds. Accordingly, our scaffold is expected to act a useful application in the field of bone tissue engineering. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1779–1787, 2016.