Comparative study of osteogenic potential of a composite scaffold incorporating either endogenous bone morphogenetic protein-2 or exogenous phytomolecule icaritin: An in vitro efficacy study

PLGA/TCP composite scaffold incorporating bioactive phytomolecule icaritin for enhancement of bone defect repair in rabbits

“…PLGA/TCP incorporating phytomolecule ICT were fabricated at À28°C with a low-temperature rapid-prototyping machine (CLRF-2000-II, Tsinghua University, China) using the established protocol [6]. Briefly, PLGA and TCP powders with a weight ratio of 4:1 were dissolved in organic solvent 1,4-dioxane to form a homogeneous solution.…”

“…The results indicated that BMP-2 incorporating scaffolds did not present desirable osteogenic ability for the cultured BMSC. This finding was explained by the fact that BMP-2 might have lost its original bioactivity, as organic solvent denatured the protein during scaffold fabrication and preparation [6]. So the incorporation of the exogenous growth factor ICT into PLGA/TCP to form porous composite scaffolds may become an attractive concept for further research and development of biomaterials incorporating relevant bioactive molecules.…”

“…So the incorporation of the exogenous growth factor ICT into PLGA/TCP to form porous composite scaffolds may become an attractive concept for further research and development of biomaterials incorporating relevant bioactive molecules. Recent in vitro studies [5,6,22] showed that PLGA/TCP/ICT porous composite scaffolds also functioning as a local delivery system of ICT were able to grant a slow release of the incorporated ICT from the composite scaffold to execute the bone anabolic effects. The present study was therefore designed to further investigate its potential in bone repair augmentation effects, using a standard rabbit ulnar segmental defect model, evaluated systemically using radiographs, high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and histology.…”

“…Polymeric materials such as polylactideco-glycolide (PLGA) can be dissolved with organic solvent to form paste and therefore used as a basic biomaterial for forming three-dimensional (3D) porous scaffold using spinning technology, together with addition of tricalcium phosphate (TCP), as TCP was able to buffer the lower pH value during degradation of PLGA in favour of reduction of inflammation in vivo, apart from enhancement of scaffold mechanical properties [18]. In this study, PLGA and TCP were used as basic carriers to fabricate porous composite scaffolds by incorporating or homogenizing bioactive phytoestrogenic ICT (PLGA/TCP/ICT composite scaffolds) at various dosages, using established low-temperature rapid-prototyping technology [6,[19][20][21]. ICT served as an exogenous growth factor incorporated into PLGA/TCP composite scaffold.…”

“…Prostheses for reconstruction of bone defects are widely used in orthopaedic tissue engineering. The overall concept focuses on the use of conductive scaffold materials possessing the desired mechanical function and tissue regeneration potential, in combination with potential delivery of endogenous osteoinductive or osteopromotive growth factors [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Icaritin (ICT), an exogenous semisynthesized small phytomolecule [9][10][11], is an intestinal metabolite of epimedium-derived flavonoids (EF) discovered in serum [12,13].…”