Hydroxyapatite nanoparticle-modified porous bone grafts with improved cell attachment

Emulsion-templated foams have displayed promise as injectable bone grafts; however, the use of a surfactant as an emulsifier resulted in relatively small pores and impedes cell attachment. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were explored as an alternative stabilizer to address these limitations. To this end, hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were first modified with myristic acid to generate the appropriate balance of hydrophobicity to stabilize a water-in-oil emulsion of neopentyl glycol diacrylate and 1,4-butanedithiol. In situ surface modification of the resulting foam with hydroxyapatite was confirmed with elemental mapping and transmission electron microscopy. Nanoparticle-stabilized foams displayed improved human mesenchymal stem cell viability (91 ± 5%) over surfactant-stabilized foams (23 ± 11%). Although the pore size was appropriate for bone grafting applications (115 ± 71 μm), the foams lacked the interconnected architecture necessary for cell infiltration. We hypothesized that a co-stabilization approach with both surfactant and nanoparticles could be used to achieve interconnected pores while maintaining improved cell attachment and larger pore sizes. A range of hydroxyapatite nanoparticle and surfactant concentrations were investigated to determine the effects on microarchitecture and cell behavior. By balancing these interactions, a co-stabilized foam was identified that possessed large, interconnected pores (108 ± 67 μm) and improved cell viability and attachment. The co-stabilized foam was then evaluated as an injectable bone graft including network formation, microscale integration with bone, push out strength, and compressive properties. Overall, this work demonstrated that in situ surface modification with nHA improved cell attachment while retaining desirable bone grafting features and injectability.