No abstract

Cleft palate (CP) is one of the most common birth defects, presenting a multitude of negative impacts on the health of the patient. It also leads to increased mortality at all stages of life, economic costs and psychosocial effects. The embryological development of CP has been outlined thanks to the advances made in recent years due to biomolecular successions. The etiology is broad and combines certain environmental and genetic factors. Currently, all surgical interventions work off the principle of restoring the area of the fissure and aesthetics of the patient, making use of bone substitutes. These can involve biological products, such as a demineralized bone matrix, as well as natural–synthetic polymers, and can be supplemented with nutrients or growth factors. For this reason, the following review analyzes different biomaterials in which nutrients or biomolecules have been added to improve the bioactive properties of the tissue construct to regenerate new bone, taking into account the greatest limitations of this approach, which are its use for bone substitutes for large areas exclusively and the lack of vascularity. Bone tissue engineering is a promising field, since it favors the development of porous synthetic substitutes with the ability to promote rapid and extensive vascularization within their structures for the regeneration of the CP area.

Today, regenerative osteogenesis represents a clinical need, due to the incidence of bone defects that involve groups of pathologies ranging from congenital anomalies to traumatic injuries, as well as problems presented surgically. This is why the design of a polymeric biomaterial (scaffold) of chitosan, carboxymethylcellulose, zinc oxide, and calcium carbonate with similar characteristics in terms of composition and bone structure offers high potential to help address this health problem. The technique for obtaining the scaffolds of this research was to develop a physical hydrogel to have the biofunctionality of the active groups of the polymer chains used, then make use of the lyophilization process to obtain three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffolds. The physicochemical and biological properties of the scaffolds were evaluated. The scaffolds presented morphology with pore size and interconnectivity that favor the need for cell proliferation and viability. The biocompatibility tests confirm that the designed scaffolds do not present cytotoxicity and the analyzes with alizarin red staining show calcium deposits in the materials with CaCO3 and ZnO. Osteoinduction assays to osteogenic lineage using runt-related transcription factor type 2 (RUNX2) and collagen type 1 (COL-1) antibodies allowed expression in differentiated cells. Therefore, the calcium carbonate-containing scaffolds stabilized by physical bonds have characteristics of being non-cytotoxic, bioactive, and osteoinductive, which motivate their use in future tests to evaluate their demeanor with rat models for bone engineering studies.

Bone Regeneration represents a clinical need, related to bone defects such as congenital anomalies, trauma with bone loss, and/or some pathologies such as cysts or tumors This is why a polymeric biomaterial that mimics the osteogenic composition and structure represents a high potential to face this problem. The method of obtaining these materials was first to prepare a stabilized hydrogel by means of physical bonds and then to make use of the lyophilization technique to obtain the 3D porous scaffolds with temperature conditions of −58 °C and pressure of 1 Pa for 16 h. The physicochemical and bioactive properties of the scaffolds were studied. FTIR and TGA results confirm the presence of the initial components in the 3d matrix of the scaffold. The scaffolds exhibited a morphology with pore size and interconnectivity that promote good cell viability. Together, the cell viability and proliferation test, Alamar BlueTM and the differentiation test: alizarin staining, showed the ability of physically stabilized scaffolds to proliferate and differentiate swine dental pulp stem cell (DPSCs) followed by mineralization. Therefore, the Cs-PCL-PVA-HA scaffold stabilized by physical bonds has characteristics that suggest great utility for future complementary in vitro tests and in vivo studies on bone defects. Likewise, this biomaterial was enhanced with the addition of HA, providing a scaffold with osteoconductive properties necessary for good regeneration of bone tissue.