Fig. 8.

The degradability and osteoblast mineralization of pure and Cu- substituted nHA/Cs/Gel scaffolds. (A) the degradation rate of scaffolds was assessed in 28 days by immersing scaffolds into PBS solution (pH = 7.4, 37°C). Data revealed that scaffolds containing nHA.Cu3% and nHA.Cu5% concerned lower degradation rates in comparison to nHA/Cs/Gel scaffolds while nHA.Cu7% had a higher degradability (c: P value < 0.001, b: P value < 0.01, a: P value < 0.05, n: non-significant). (B) and (C) the quantitative analysis of alizarin red staining following the culture of osteoblasts on scaffolds over 7 days showed that both pure and Cu-substituted nHA/Cs/Gel scaffolds increased the osteoblast mineralization compared to those cultured on polystyrene plates (c: P value < 0.001, b: P value < 0.01). Cu incorporated scaffolds displayed higher mineralization in comparison with pure nHA/Cs/Gel scaffolds. The most increased osteoblast mineralization was observed in Cu5% containing scaffolds and there were significant differences between all groups but nHA/Cs/Gel with nHA.Cu3% /Cs/Gel and nHA.Cu7% /Cs/Gel groups.