Could Curdlan/Whey Protein Isolate/Hydroxyapatite Biomaterials Be Considered as Promising Bone Scaffolds?—Fabrication, Characterization, and Evaluation of Cytocompatibility towards Osteoblast Cells In Vitro

The number of bone fractures and cracks requiring surgical interventions increases every year; hence, there is a huge need to develop new potential bone scaffolds for bone regeneration. The goal of this study was to gain knowledge about the basic properties of novel curdlan/whey protein isolate/hydroxyapatite biomaterials in the context of their use in bone tissue engineering. The purpose of this research was also to determine whether the concentration of whey protein isolate in scaffolds has an influence on their properties. Thus, two biomaterials differing in the concentration of whey protein isolate (i.e., 25 wt.% and 35 wt.%; hereafter called Cur_WPI25_HAp and Cur_WPI35_HAp, respectively) were fabricated and subjected to evaluation of porosity, mechanical properties, swelling ability, protein release capacity, enzymatic biodegradability, bioactivity, and cytocompatibility towards osteoblasts in vitro. It was found that both biomaterials fulfilled a number of requirements for bone scaffolds, as they demonstrated limited swelling and the ability to undergo controllable enzymatic biodegradation, to form apatite layers on their surfaces and to support the viability, growth, proliferation, and differentiation of osteoblasts. On the other hand, the biomaterials were characterized by low open porosity, which may hinder the penetration of cells though their structure. Moreover, they had low mechanical properties compared to natural bone, which limits their use to filling of bone defects in non-load bearing implantation areas, e.g., in the craniofacial area, but then they will be additionally supported by application of mechanically strong materials such as titanium plates. Thus, this preliminary in vitro research indicates that biomaterials composed of curdlan, whey protein isolate, and hydroxyapatite seem promising for bone tissue engineering applications, but their porosity and mechanical properties should be improved. This will be the subject of our further work.