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Different ratios of a resorbable phosphate glass (ICEL) and a bioactive silicate glass (CEL2) were co-sintered to obtain 3D porous scaffolds by gel-cast foaming method. The scaffold morphology, crystalline phases and compressive strength were studied. All the scaffolds showed a 3D structure with highly interconnected pores. The ICEL/CEL2 co-sintering resulted in a lower shrinkage leading to higher scaffold porosity (more than 70 vol%) compared to pure ICEL and CEL2 (about 65 vol%). Tuning ICEL/CEL2 ratio allowed the modulation of the scaffold resorption rate, with weight loss ranging from 20% to 75% after soaking for 3 months in simulated body fluid. Scaffolds containing higher amount of CEL2 silicate glass, resulted in a very high bioactivity.In vitrobiological test showed no toxic effect of the scaffolds on human osteoblast-like cells.

Over the last two decades, the philosophy behind an optimal fixation of orthopaedic implants progressively evolved towards “bone-conservative” solutions and, accordingly, the researchers’ attention moved from simple mechanical fixation of the prosthesis to host bone by using screws or acrylic cement to new strategies based on a physico-chemical bond (surface modification) in order to minimize bone resection/loss and maximize tissue-implant integration. This research work explores the feasibility of a novel bioceramic single-piece acetabular cup for hip joint prosthesis that can be anchored to the patient’s pelvic bone by means of a bone-like trabecular coating (scaffold) able to promote implant osteointegration.

The development of suitable strategies to treat ageing-related pathologies has attracted the interest of researchers in view of the increasing life expectancy in the next decades. Osteoporosis is a worldwide disease with high prevalence in humans older than 50 that dramatically increases the risk of bone fractures with associated disabilities. The innovative use of new biomaterials as models of the healthy and osteoporotic bone matrix would be a new strategy to study the physiological conditions associated with osteoporosis and the connection between microenvironment changes and the bone ageing process. In this work, experimental bioactive glass substrates were coated with various polymer formulations in order to impart tunable surface features to the whole systems, which will act as models of the healthy and aged bone tissue once they have been colonized by cells.

Two different glasses, one biocompatible but with a low bioactivity index (G1) and the other with an higher bioactivity index (G2), the ceramic version of the second glass and a titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) have been functionalizated by anchoring alkaline phosphatase (ALP) on their surfaces. The enzyme has been chosen because it is involved in mineralization processes of hard tissues and is a model for more complex ones. ALP has been grafted on glasses and glass-ceramics surfaces both with and without samples silanization and on metallic surfaces with and without tresyl chloride activation. Samples have been analyzed at each step of the functionalization process in order to verify it.