Fabrication of a three-dimensional nanostructured biomaterial for tissue engineering of bone.

A plasma process for the surface modification of HA powders has been developed. Acrylic acid and acrylic acid/octadiene plasma deposited films onto HA particles have demonstrated to interact with SBF allowing the calcium dissolution-precipitation mechanism. Therefore, a nanostructured composite between HA and a self-assembling peptide scaffold (RAD16-I) has been developed. The differentiation of mESC in this scaffold has been studied, in order to test the osteogenic capacity of the new composite material. We have observed that the mESC can be induced to produce Ca salts (mineralization) in a 3D-microenvironment and moreover, this activity can be enhanced by the presence of HA particles into the nanofiber scaffold.