| Popis: |
Hydroxyapatite (HAp) has been widely used as a scaffold for repairing fractured bone. For bone regeneration, the crystal structure, crystal orientation, and composition of HAp as well as the morphology of apatite scaffold are considered to be important. The apatite scaffold constructed by single‐crystal fibers with pores showed good results for cellular response. Especially, apatite fiber scaffold (AFS) with large pores, 100 to 250 μm, was found to enhance cell activities such as cell proliferation and differentiation. Here, the three‐dimensional (3‐D) structure of apatite scaffolds was investigated by means of x‐ray computed tomography (x‐ray CT) using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) modified projection x‐ray microscope. The 3‐D structures of apatite fiber scaffolds (AFS) were reconstructed from a series of 180 x‐ray projection images taken around a single rotation axis using the Feldkamp‐based cone‐beam reconstruction method. Extracted cross sections from CT data revealed a network‐structure of apatite fibers. The distribution of pores inside the AFS in different preparations was compared. |
