Biomaterials with suitable surface modification strategies are contributing significantly to the rapid development of the field of bone tissue engineering. Despite these encouraging results, utilization of biomaterials is poorly translated to human clinical trials potentially due to lack of knowledge about the interaction between biomaterials and the body defense mechanism, the “immune system”. The highly complex immune system involves the coordinated action of many immune cells that can produce various inflammatory and anti‐inflammatory cytokines. Besides, bone fracture healing initiates with acute inflammation and may later transform to a regenerative or degenerative phase mainly due to the cross‐talk between immune cells and other cells in the bone regeneration process. Among various immune cells, macrophages possess a significant role in the immune defense, where their polarization state plays a key role in the wound healing process. Growing evidence shows that the macrophage polarization state is highly sensitive to the biomaterial's physiochemical properties, and advances in biomaterial research now allow well controlled surface properties. This review provides an overview of biomaterial‐mediated modulation of the immune response for regulating key bone regeneration events, such as osteogenesis, osteoclastogenesis, and inflammation, and it discusses how these strategies can be utilized for future bone tissue engineering applications.

Current advances in biomaterial fabrication techniques have broadened their application in different realms of biomedical engineering, spanning from drug delivery to tissue engineering. The success of biomaterials depends highly on the ability to modulate cell and tissue responses, including cell adhesion, as well as induction of repair and immune processes. Thus, most recent approaches in the field have concentrated on functionalizing biomaterials with different biomolecules intended to evoke cell- and tissue-specific reactions. Marine mussels produce mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs), which help them strongly attach to different surfaces, even under wet conditions in the ocean. Inspired by mussel adhesiveness, scientists discovered that dopamine undergoes self-polymerization at alkaline conditions. This reaction provides a universal coating for metals, polymers, and ceramics, regardless of their chemical and physical properties. Furthermore, this polymerized layer is enriched with catechol groups that enable immobilization of primary amine or thiol-based biomolecules via a simple dipping process. Herein, this review explores the versatile surface modification techniques that have recently been exploited in tissue engineering and summarizes polydopamine polymerization mechanisms, coating process parameters, and effects on substrate properties. A brief discussion of polydopamine-based reactions in the context of engineering various tissue types, including bone, blood vessels, cartilage, nerves, and muscle, is also provided.

Although bone morphogenic proteins (BMPs) have been widely used for bone regeneration, the ideal delivery system with optimized dose and minimized side effects is still active area of research. In this study, we developed bone morphogenetic protein-2(BMP-2) immobilized poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) nanofibers inspired by polydopamine, which could be ultimately used as membranes for guided bone regeneration, and investigated their effect on guidance of in vitro cell behavior and in vivo bone formation. Surface chemical analysis of the nanofibers confirmed successful immobilization of BMP-2 mediated by polydopamine, and about 90% of BMP-2 was stably retained on the nanofiber surface for at least 28 days. The alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium mineralization of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) after 14 days of in vitro culture was significantly enhanced on nanofibers immobilized with BMP-2. More importantly, BMP-2 at a relatively small dose was highly active following implantation to the critical-sized defect in the cranium of mice; radiographic analysis demonstrated that 77.8 ± 11.7% of newly formed bone was filled within the defect for a BMP-2-immobilized groups at the concentration of 124 ± 9 ng/cm(2), as compared to 5.9 ± 1.0 and 34.1 ± 5.5% recovery, for a defect-only and a polydopamine-only group, respectively. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy of samples from the BMP-2 immobilized group showed fibroblasts and osteoblasts with nanofiber strands in the middle of regenerated bone tissue, revealing the importance of interaction between implanted nanofibers and the neighboring extracellular environment. Taken together, our data support that the presentation of BMP-2 on the surface of nanofibers as immobilized by utilizing polydopamine chemistry may be an effective method to direct bone growth at relatively low local concentration.