The field of bone and cartilage tissue engineering has a pressing need for novel, biocompatible, biodegradable biocomposites comprising polymers with bioceramics or bioglasses to meet numerous requirements for these applications. We created hydrolytically degradable hydrogel/bioceramic biocomposites, comprising poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) hydrogels and 50 wt% biphasic hydroxyapatite/β-tricalcium phosphate (60/40) through in situ polymerization. The hydrolytic degradation starts with hydrolysis of the cross-linker, N, O-dimethacryloyl hydroxylamine, which was synthesized in house. Swelling and degradation were examined in details at a phosphate buffered saline solution at 37 °C over a 12-week period of time. To vary degradability, a co-monomer, acrylic acid (AA) or 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylamide (HPMA), was introduced, coupled with altering the concentration of the cross-linker and of the bioceramic. The co-monomer HPMA was found to be more effective than AA in enhancing degradation, though AA led to greater swelling ratios. 33% of weight loss was achieved in some of the biocomposites containing HPMA. Porous structures were developed during swelling and degradation in biocomposites with AA but not in those containing HPMA, suggesting different degradation mechanisms: bulk erosion vs. bulk degradation. Good biocompatibility, as evidenced by attachment and proliferation of mouse-derived osteoblast precursor cells from the MC3T3-E1 lineage, was observed on these biomaterials, regardless of the type of the co-monomer. The rationale and approaches employed here open up new opportunities for creating novel, complex organic-inorganic biomaterials in orthopedic tissue engineering.
Keywords: N,O-dimethacryloyl hydroxylamine; hydrolytic degradation; pHEMA.