Electrospun nanofibers
have received much attention as bone tissue-engineered
scaffolds for their capacity to mimic the structure of natural extracellular
matrix (ECM). Most studies have reproduced nanofibers with smooth
surface for tissue engineering. This is quite different from the triple-helical
nanotopography of natural collagen nanofibrils. In this study, hierarchical
nanostructures were coated on the surface of drug-loaded core–shell
nanofibers to mimic natural collagen nanofibrils. The nanoshish-kebab
(SK) structure was decorated regularly on the surface of the nanofibers,
and the inner-loaded bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) exhibited
a gentle release pattern, similar to a zero-order release pattern
in kinetics. The in vitro study also showed that the SK structure
could accelerate cell proliferation, attachment, and osteogenic differentiation.
Four groups of scaffolds were implanted in vivo to repair critical-sized
rat calvarial defects: (1) PCL/PVA (control); (2) SK-PCL/PVA; (3)
PCL/PVA-BMP2; and (4) SK-PCL/PVA-BMP2. Much more bone was formed in
the SK-PCL/PVA group (24.57 ± 3.81%) than in the control group
(1.21 ± 0.23%). The BMP2-loaded core–shell nanofibers
with nanopatterned structure (SK-PCL/PVA-BMP2) displayed the best
repair efficacy (76.38 ± 4.13%), followed by the PCL/PVA-BMP2
group (39.86 ± 5.74%). It was believed that the hierarchical
nanostructured core–shell nanofibers could promote osteogeneration
and that the SK structure showed synergistic ability with nanofiber-loaded
BMP2 in vivo for bone regeneration. Thus, this BMP2-loaded core–shell nanofiber
scaffold with hierarchical nanostructure holds great potential for
bone tissue engineering applications.
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