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Human bones are subjected to cracks and defects in the presence of an impact force or being aging. Although bones can self-heal the impaired site, the excessive size of the damage may prevent the bone from recovering completely. In order to cope with this difficulty, an implant for the injured part is thus required, and enables the osteocytes to grow bone tissues via the bone scaffolds that can decompose in one day, and ultimately leads to a full recovery. Bone scaffolds are typically made of porous degradable materials that provide the mechanical support during repair and regeneration of damaged or diseased bone. This study aims to create Core-Shel Structured Artificial Bone Scaffolds with biocompatibility, biodegradation, and heal-promotion. Polyvinyl alchol (PVA) fibers are fabricated into hollow PVA braids by using a braiding machine, and a hydroxyapatite (HA)/gelatin)/PVA mixture is infused into the braids in order to form Core-Shel Structured Artificial Bone Scaffolds. The braids are prepared with different combinations of crosslinking parameters, heat treatment conditions, and HA contents, after which the resulting bone scaffolds are then evaluated for their applications by using surface observation, a porosity test, a compressive strength test, a degradation test, a swelling test, an MTT assay, and an in vivio study. The compressive strength of PVA braids that are crosslinked with glutaraldehyde can be increased by at least 20MPa. A ten-minute heat treatment results in an increase in the compressive strength of PVA braids that is from 23.38MPa to 285.92MPa. However, when being heat-treated for fifteen minutes, the compressive strength is decreased to 142.33MPa. The bone scaffolds have a compressive strength that is increased to 51.7MPa with the addition of 0.4% HA, and it is then decreased to 25.13MPa with the addition of 0.6% HA. The bone scaffolds are proven to have biocompatibility according to the results of cell viability and alkaline phosphatase activity.
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