Mineralized Collagen-Based Composite Bone Materials for Cranial Bone Regeneration in Developing Sheep

Cranial bone defects remain a great challenging problem in clinical settings, the influences of which are serious because of the intricate complications and related social problems, especially for young children with rapidly growing skulls. Currently, an increasing number of bone materials are being developed for cranial bone defects repair. In this study, two different biodegradable composite bone materials based on mineralized collagen (MC), with compact/porous structure, were constructed to promote bone regeneration for large cranial bone defect repair of one-month-old baby sheep. The porous MC (pMC) scaffold had interconnected porous structure with a porosity of about 73% and a 20–150 μm pore size range, and the compact MC (cMC) showed no distinct pore structure. Mechanical tests indicated that the compressive strength and elastic modulus of cMC and pMC were comparable with those of natural compact and cancellous bone, respectively. Both of these two MC scaffolds possessed good biocompatibility and su...