Physicochemical and in vitro investigation of trace element-incorporated hydroxyapatite and starPCL@chitosan composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Organic-inorganic composite scaffolds are of interest for bone tissue engineering and post injury-bone regeneration. In the present study, aimed to investigate the suitability of the trace element-incorporated hydroxyapatite (THA) integrated bioactive gel (BioGel) (star-shaped polycaprolactone (starPCL)/Chitosan (Chit)) (THAiBioGel) composite scaffold which was fabricated using melt/solution blending method as a bone scaffold. The results revealed that the as-prepared THAiBioGel demonstrated that THA was successfully incorporated into BioGel and yield a desirable porous structure with mechanical strength of 10.35 ± 0.27 MPa, 13.62 ± 0.32 MPa and 18.30 ± 0.54 MPa for weight ratio of THA:BioGel 5:5, 7:3 and 9:1, respectively. Furthermore, the in vitro biological assay confirmed that the present material was not only good for osteoblast-like UMR-106 cell attachment on its surface, but also significantly promoted bone formation as demonstrated by an increase in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Our data, therefore, strongly suggested that THAiBioGel could be used as scaffold for bone tissue engineering.