Co-incorporation of strontium and fluorine into diopside scaffolds: Bioactivity, biodegradation and cytocompatibility evaluations

This study focuses on the effect of Sr-, F-, and their co-doping on the structure, biodegradation, bioactivity and cytocompatibility of diopside-based scaffolds, using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, Archimedes densitometry, inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy, pH-metry, and cell MTT assay. The structural characterization of the scaffolds confirmed the successful incorporation of the dopants into the ceramic. In addition, all the doped scaffolds presented higher apatite-forming ability levels in comparison to the undoped one, where the highest and the least impact of doping on bioactivity belonged to F- and co-doping, respectively. It was found that the biodegradation difference of the scaffolds in terms of principal ions and the chance of F-incorporation into precipitated apatite determine the bioactivity difference of the samples. Osteoblast-like MG-63 cells exhibited the highest and lowest compatibility to the Sr-doped and co-doped scaffolds, respectively. In summary, F- and Sr-doping offered the highest bioactivity and cytocompatibility, respectively, whereas co-doping presented the weakest behaviors comparatively.