Application of strontium-doped calcium polyphosphate scaffold on angiogenesis for bone tissue engineering

The key factor for regenerating large segmental bone defects through bone tissue engineering is angiogenesis in scaffolds. Attempts to overcome this problem, it is a good strategy to develop a new scaffold with bioactivity to induce angiogenesis in bone tissue engineering. In our previous research, the ability of strontium-doped calcium polyphosphate (SCPP) to stimulate the release of angiogenic growth factors from cultured osteoblasts was studied. This study was performed to determine the ability of SCPP to induce angiogenesis within in vitro co-culture model of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and osteoblasts co-cultured. The bioactivity of developed scaffolds to induce angiogenesis in vivo was also researched in this paper. Co-cultured model has been developed in vitro and then cultured with SCPP scaffold as well as calcium polyphosphate (CPP) scaffold and hydroxylapatite (HA) scaffold. The results showed that the optimal ratio of HUVEC and osteoblasts co-cultured model for in vitro angiogenesis was 5:1. The model could maintain for more than 35 days when cultured with the scaffold and show the best activity at 21st day. Compared with those in CPP and HA scaffold, the formation of tube-like structure and the expression of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule in co-cultured model is better in SCPP scaffold. The in vivo immunohistochemistry staining for VEGF also showed that SCPP had a potential to promote the formation of angiogenesis and the regeneration of bone. SCPP scaffold could be served as a potential biomaterial with stimulating angiogenesis in bone tissue engineering and bone repair.