Electrospun Nanofibers of Hydroxyapatite / Collagen / Chitosan Promote Osteogenic Differentiation of BMSCs

Bone tissue engineering, aiming at developing bone substitutes for repair and regeneration of bone defects instead of using autologous bone grafts,has attracted wide attention in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.Developing biomimetic biomaterial scaffolds able to regulate osteogenic differentiation of stem cells could be a promising strategy to improve the therapeutic efficacy.In this study, electrospun composite nanofibers of hydroxyapatite / collagen / chitosan( HAp / Col / CTS)resembling the fibrous nanostructure and constituents of the hierarchically organized natural bone,were prepared to investigate their capacity for promoting bone mesenchymal stem cells( BMSCs)to differentiate into the osteogenic lineage in the absence and presence of the osteogenic supplementation, respectively.Cell morphology,proliferation and quantified specific osteogenic protein expression on the electrospun HAp / Col / CTS scaffolds were evaluated in comparison with different controls including electrospun nanofibrous CTS,HAp / CTS and tissue culture plate.Our results showed that the nanofibrous HAp / Col / CTS scaffolds supported better spreading and proliferation of the BMSCs than other substrates( P < 0.01).Expressions of osteogenesis protein markers,alkaline phosphatase( ALP) and Col,were significantly upregulated on the HAp / Col / CTS than those on the CTS( P < 0.01) and HAp /CTS( P < 0.05) scaffolds in the absence of the osteogenic supplementation.Moreover,presence of osteogenic supplementation also proved to enhance osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs on HAp /Col / CTS scaffolds, indicative of a synergistic effect.This study highlights the potential of BMSCs / HAp / Col / CTS cell-scaffold system for functional bone repair and regeneration applications.