Bio-Inspired, Self-Healing Organic-Inorganic Hybrids for Bone Tissue Engineering

Bio-inspired, self-healing organic-inorganic hybrids for bone tissue engineering

Jijun Huang¹, Grace Lau¹, Manuel Houmard¹, Lihong He², Phillip B. Messersmith², and Antoni P. Tomsia¹

¹Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720

²Biomedical Engineering Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208

Repair and replacement of skeletal tissue by synthetic materials remains one of the great challenges in tissue engineering. Unlike nature bone and other tissue, the bone and dental implants do not have the function of self-healing. In order to achieve dramatic improvements in in vivo performance of composites for skeletal tissue repair, new ways of approaching composite design and fabrication are needed. We recently employed a biomimetic or bio-inspired approach to develop self-healing bioactive composites by combining freeze casting technology with infiltration and in situ polymerization. This new approach allows us to be able to fabricate a series of lamellar-structured biocomposites of TiO₂ or ZnO with self-healing polymers based on poly(methyl methacrylate). The formed biocomposites show considerably improved compressive strength and fracture toughness in addition to their intrinsic self-healing capability. In this work, we will demonstrate our design strategy, fabrication technology, and improved mechanical properties of the biomimetic composites.