A novel bioassay to evaluate biocompatibility of bioactive glass scaffolds for tissue

GORUSTOVICH, A; VARGAS, G.; BRETCANU. O.; VERA MESONES, R.; PORTO LÓPEZ, J.M.; BOCCACCINI,

Advances in Applied Ceramics

Maney Publishing

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2008 vol. 107 p. 274 - 276

1743-6753

Abstract Several authors have proposed the use of chick embryos as an experimental model to study the biocompatibility of materials, given its advantages over mammalian systems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the biocompatibility and bone mineralisation potential of 45S5 Bioglass® -derived glass-ceramic scaffolds using a chick embryo shell-less (ex ovo) culture system.   Chick embryos were divided into two groups: control (C), and experimental (E). Scaffolds were placed on the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) at 10 days of total incubation in embryos of group E. The 45S5 Bioglass®-derived glass-ceramic scaffolds proved to be biocompatible in terms of the absence of inflammatory response at the implant site (CAM) and no alterations in the other end-points assessed, i.e. survival, stage of embryonic development and body weight, were detected. However, body length was greater in group E embryos than in group C embryos (p<0.05). A marked reduction (93%) in Ca content in the scaffolds was evidenced by EDX at 5 days post-implantation. Calcium release from the scaffold implanted on the CAM might have been responsible for the restoration of the bone-like phenotype in chick embryonic skeleton of group E as detected by alcian blue-alizarin red double staining, as well as by histological and microchemical analyses. Conversely, the control embryos exhibited a chondrogenic phenotype.