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. 2021 Aug 26;9(9):1091.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9091091.

Whey-Derived Porous Carbon Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Raúl Llamas-Unzueta  1 , Marta Suárez  2   3 , Adolfo Fernández  2   3 , Raquel Díaz  2   3 , Miguel A Montes-Morán  1 , J Angel Menéndez  1
Affiliations

Whey-Derived Porous Carbon Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Raúl Llamas-Unzueta et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Porous carbon structures derived from whey powders are described and evaluated as potential scaffolds in bone tissue engineering. These materials have a porosity between 48% and 58%, with a hierarchical pore size distribution ranging from 1 to 400 micrometres. Compressive strength and elastic modulus are outstanding for such a porous material, being up to three times better than those of traditional HA or TCP scaffolds with similar porosities. They also present non-cytotoxic and bioactive behavior, due to their carbon-based composition that also includes some residual mineral salts content.

Keywords: biomaterials; porous carbon; scaffolds; tissue engineering; whey.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Specimens used in compressive strength tests (a); and in the assays of biological response, biodegradation and bioactivity (b). Scale bar, 10 mm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
FESEM micrographs of scaffolds obtained from the sintering of whey powder at 450 °C, 750 °C and 1000 °C. Scale bars: 500 µm (top images); 100 µm (bottom images).
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Selected examples of the compressive tests carried out with WDCSs; (b) compressive strength and modulus of the WDCSs prepared at different carbonization temperatures.
Figure 4
Figure 4
XRD diffractograms of the whey-carbon scaffolds.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cell viability percentage of SaOs-2 cells after incubation during 24 h with extracts of WDCS450, WDCS750 and WDCS1000.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Biodegradation behavior of the WCDSs: Changes in the ions concentration vs. soaking time in (a) WDCS450, (b) WDCS750 and (c) WDCS1000.
Figure 7
Figure 7
XRD diffractograms of the ashes of carbonized whey scaffolds at 450, 750 and 1000 °C (overlapped).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Bioactivity behavior of the carbon scaffolds: Changes of the Ca (a) and P (b) concentrations vs. soaking time in WDCS450 (Circle), WDCS750 (square) and WDCS1000 (triangle).
Figure 9
Figure 9
FESEM micrographs and EDX analyses of WDCS750 (a) before SBF assay, (b) after 1 week in SBF and (c) after 4 weeks in SBF. Scale bars (top images): 500 nm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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