Enhanced Osteoinductive Bone Repair Using Dual Growth Factors (VEGF and BMP-2) with Alendronate in Engineered Hydroxyapatite Scaffold
Background:
The dynamic mechanisms inherent in bone homeostasis yield invaluable insight for advancing scaffold biomaterials in bone regeneration. The increasing recognition of drug delivery systems and the release of bioactive substances significantly elevating their importance in bone tissue engineering. This approach not only supports bone tissue formation but also enhances the scaffold's ability to facilitate bone ingrowth. Bisphosphonates (BPs) play a crucial role in bone re-modeling, subsequently affecting bone regeneration. Despite this, there is a scarcity of studies ad-dressing the systematic delivery of BPs within bone defect models.
Objective:
In this study, integration of bisphosphonates Pamidronate (Pam) and Alendronate (Aln) into a hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffold with MC3T3-E1 cells and growth factors (VEGF and BMP-2), is expected to yield a synergistic effect for intensifying osteoinduction and efficient bone regenera-tion.
Materials and Methods:
Cell viability was measured using 2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and morphological assessment was documented using the inverted microscope. Char-acterization of engineered HA scaffold was performed using Field emission scanning electron mi-croscopy (FESEM), and its elemental analysis was done using energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) anal-ysis. The mineralization rate was assessed by analyzing alkaline phosphatase (ALP) expression.
Results:
Data demonstrated that Aln offers better potency on osteoblast cells as compared to Pam. FESEM micrograph revealed that the engineered HA-VEGF+BMP-2/Aln scaffold facilitated osteo-blast attachment and spreading, forming a concrete connection with HA scaffold. Engineered HA-VEGF+BMP-2/Aln also significantly increased ALP expression, indicating that the extracellular ma-trix is advancing into the mineralization phase.
Conclusion:
To conclude, our investigation unveils the synergistic effects of combining dual growth factors (VEGF and BMP-2) with BPs, specifically Aln, resulting in enhanced cell adhesion on hy-droxyapatite scaffolds. This emphasizes the substantial promise of employing such a strategy in pro-moting the regeneration of bone tissue.