Bone has a complex hierarchical structure with the capability of self-regeneration. In the case of critical-sized defects, the regeneration capabilities of normal bones are severely impaired, thus causing non-union healing of bones. Therefore, bone tissue engineering has since emerged to solve problems relating to critical-sized bone defects. Amongst the many biomaterials available on the market, calcium silicate-based (CS) cements have garnered huge interest due to their versatility and good bioactivity. In the recent decade, scientists have attempted to modify or functionalize CS cement in order to enhance the bioactivity of CS. Reports have been made that the addition of mesoporous nanoparticles onto scaffolds could enhance the bone regenerative capabilities of scaffolds. For this study, the main objective was to reuse gelatin from fish wastes and use it to combine with bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 and Sr-doped CS scaffolds to create a novel BMP-2-loaded, hydrogel-based mesoporous SrCS scaffold (FGSrB) and to evaluate for its composition and mechanical strength. From this study, it was shown that such a novel scaffold could be fabricated without affecting the structural properties of FGSr. In addition, it was proven that FGSrB could be used for drug delivery to allow stable localized drug release. Such modifications were found to enhance cellular proliferation, thus leading to enhanced secretion of alkaline phosphatase and calcium. The above results showed that such a modification could be used as a potential alternative for future bone tissue engineering research.
Cell-encapsulated bioscaffold is a promising and novel method to allow fabrication of live functional organs for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, traditional fabrication methods of 3D scaffolds and cell-laden hydrogels still face many difficulties and challenges. This study uses a newer 3D fabrication technique and the concept of recycling of an unutilized resource to fabricate a novel scaffold for bone tissue engineering. In this study, fish-extracted gelatin was incorporated with bioactive ceramic for bone tissue engineering, and with this we successfully fabricated a novel fish gelatin methacrylate (FG) polymer hydrogel mixed with strontium-doped calcium silicate powder (FGSr) 3D scaffold via photo-crosslinking. Our results indicated that the tensile strength of FGSr was almost 2.5-fold higher as compared to FG thus making it a better candidate for future clinical applications. The in-vitro assays illustrated that the FGSr scaffolds showed good biocompatibility with human Wharton jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (WJMSC), as well as enhancing the osteogenesis differentiation of WJMSC. The WJMSC-laden FGSr 3D scaffolds expressed a higher degree of alkaline phosphatase activity than those on cell-laden FG 3D scaffolds and this result was further proven with the subsequent calcium deposition results. Therefore, these results showed that 3D-printed cell-laden FGSr scaffolds had enhanced mechanical property and osteogenic-related behavior that made for a more suitable candidate for future clinical applications. Furthermore, bone regeneration is a complex physiological process regulated by osteoclast resorption with osteoblast bone formation and the entire process includes inflammatory reactions, endochondral bone formation and bone remodeling. Currently, for clinical cases, the golden method to repair bone defects is to use autologous bone grafts as this method avoids disease spreading and immunological rejection. However, autografts have some major drawbacks such as limited availability and invasive harvesting that requires additional surgery to harvest healthy bones from another site. Furthermore, additional surgeries mean increased surgical risks and complications [2]. Allograft is an alternative to bone repair; however, it is highly limited due to rejection and lack of availability. To solve this problem, researchers had attempted to develop novel biomaterials including ceramics, polymers and composites as an alternative choice for bone regeneration [3][4][5]. In order to promote bone healing, the material must be biocompatible, biodegradable and able to promote bone regeneration which mimics the distinctive property of natural bone [6]. With the emergence of newer 3D printing techniques, we are now able to fabricate scaffolds with customized shape, pore sizes and architectures that are similar to native bone [7,8].For many years, bioceramics has emerged as promising biomaterial for bone regeneration [9,10]. Calcium phosphate is one of the most popular bioceramics which had been repeate...
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