3D hydroxyapatite scaffold for bone regeneration and local drug delivery applications

Bone tissue engineering is the technology of healing bone defects in critical clinical conditions using functional tissue-engineering substitutes. Hydroxyapatite (HAp), as a biomaterial, received extensive attention for biomedical applications in the last 15 years. HAp has been utilized systematically as a filling material for bone defects, artificial bone grafting, and as a scaffold material in prosthesis revision surgery. In this brief review, we discuss on the fundamental aspects of porous HAp scaffolds, which define their utility in bone-tissue engineering and orthopedic drug delivery applications. The review contains six sections. Section 1 provides a brief introduction on tissue engineering, history of using bio-ceramics in tissue engineering, and the present state-of-the-art scenario of tissue engineering. In section 2, we provide a brief survey of biomaterials of different kinds utilized for tissue engineering. Section 3 provides a brief review on conventional scaffold fabrication techniques and their advantages and disadvantages. In section 4, the essential physio-chemical and biological cues to the development of HAp scaffolds and their compatibility with the surrounding cells and tissues, along with their application potentials for drug loading and site-specific drug releasing are discussed. Sections 5 & 6 provide the prospects of HAp scaffolds in biomedical applications, and conclusions, respectively.