Studies on collagen behaviour in alchohols and preparation of high strength collagen composites

Abstract

newline The incidence of bone injuries has been consistently increasing every decade newlineand has continued to be so in the last decade too. Although most bone injuries are known newlineto heal spontaneously upon immobilization, there is a small but significant percentage of newlinebone injuries that need interventions in various forms. Some of the interventions that newlinehave gained prominence over the years are metal rods and screws for immobilization of newlineseverely displaced bone injuries, sound waves for slowly healing injuries, distraction newlineosteogenesis, and implants that facilitate bone regeneration. Implants consists of inserting newlinescaffolds into the defect region to bridge the gap and enable formation of new bone newlinetissue. While biopolymers dominate the field of biomaterials in soft tissue engineering, newlinethey have not had a similar impact in the field of bone regeneration. The physical and newlinemechanical properties of an ideal scaffold for bone regeneration have not yet been newlineattained with biopolymers. As a result, scaffolds for bone regeneration have been newlinedominated by synthetic materials such as ceramics, bioactive glass, and other similar newlinematerials. However, the advantages offered by biological polymers cannot be matched newlineby synthetic materials. newlineCollagen-based scaffolds occupy a place of prominence in soft tissue newlineengineering applications and have been successfully used in aiding the healing of newlinecancellous bones, especially injuries to facial bones, but have not found the same level of newlinesuccess in cortical bone applications because of poor mechanical properties. However, newlinedeveloping collagen-based scaffolds for cortical bone applications is an attractive newlineprospect because bones are primarily constituted of collagen and hydroxyapatite (HA). newlineTherefore, making collagen-HA composites is an obvious preference and has been newlineattempted by many researchers, with mechanical properties still being a challenge