Mesoporous hydroxyapatite by hard templating of silica and carbon foams for protein release

Calcium phosphates, particularly hydroxyapatite Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2 (HA), are widely used for bone regeneration due to their biocompatibility and good resorption properties. However, their performance upon implantation is improved when they are associated with bioactive molecules such as growth factors. Using mesoporous HA leads to improved protein adsorption and release kinetics because the diameter of the mesopores (2–50 nm) is in the same range as their size. We prepared this type of material by the nanocasting method using three different templates: a silica foam and two carbon templates derived from it using propylene or sucrose as carbon source. We investigated the influence of the template, the calcination temperature and of the conditions during template removal. We obtained HA materials with a surface area of up to 90 m² g−1 and with an intergranular mesopore volume of up to 0.4 cm³ g−1. In this paper, we show for the first time that the synthesis of mesoporous HA from a mesoporous silica foam template allows eliminating the template at lower temperatures (in an alkaline medium), thus preventing the sintering of the HA. These materials have interesting properties for drug delivery applications. The protein adsorption and release capacities of these HAs were tested with two model proteins, bovine serum albumin (BSA), and Cytochrome C. These materials are an important milestone for future bone regeneration systems based on HA associated with human growth factor proteins.