Biocompatibility and osteoinductive activity of nano-hydroxyapatite/chitosan/ poly(lactide-co-glycolide) scaffolds in vitro

Background: Studies have found that combination of two of chitosan (CS), nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) can improve the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of the composite stent in certain extent as well as improve osteogenic differentiation of the cells, but there is a certain distance from the ideal bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Objective: To study biocompatibility and osteoinductive activity of nHA/CS/PLGA scaffolds with different proportions in vitro. Methods: nHA/CS/PLGA scaffolds were prepared at mass ratio of 10:10:80, 10:20:70, 20:10:70 respectively by particle leaching method. And human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs) were co-cultured with these scaffolds in vitro. Adhesion, proliferation, and osteoinductive activity of these scaffolds were examined qualitatively and quantitatively by growth curve of hBMSCs on scaffolds. Gene expression of alkaline phosphatase activity and osteocalcin was detected by RT-PCR. Results and Conclusion: hBMSCs could be attached, proliferated, and osteoinduced better on the nHA/CS/PLGA scaffold with the mass ratio of 20:10:70, compared to the other two groups of scaffolds. The differences were significant statistically (P < 0.05). Alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin expressions were respectively higher in the scaffold with the mass ratio of 20:10:70 after 9-27 days of co-culture and 15-27 days of co-culture, in comparison with the other two groups of scaffolds. These findings indicate that the nHA/CS/PLGA scaffolds with the mass ratio of 20:10:70 demonstrated preferable biocompatibility and osteogenic inductivity, which is expected to be a promising scaffold material for bone tissue engineering.