Bioglass incorporation improves mechanical properties and enhances cell-mediated mineralization on electrochemically...

Bone tissue engineering mandates the development of a functional scaffold that mimics the physicochemical properties of native bone. Bioglass 45S5 (BG) is a highly bioactive material known to augment bone formation and restoration. Hybrid scaffolds fabricated using collagen type I and BG resemble the organic and inorganic composition of the bone extracellular matrix and hence have been extensively investigated for bone tissue engineering applications. However, collagen-BG scaffolds developed thus far do not recapitulate the aligned structure of collagen found in native bone. In this study, an electrochemical fabrication method was employed to synthesize BG-incorporated electrochemically aligned collagen (BG-ELAC) threads that are compositionally similar to native bone. Further, aligned collagen fibrils within BG-ELAC threads mimic the anisotropic arrangement of collagen fibrils in native bone. The effect of BG incorporation on the mechanical properties and cell-mediated mineralization on ELAC threads was investigated. The results indicated that BG can be successfully incorporated within ELAC threads, without disturbing collagen fibril alignment. Further, BG incorporation significantly increased the ultimate tensile stress (UTS) and modulus of ELAC threads (p < 0.05). SBF conditioning showed extensive mineralization on BG-ELAC threads that increased over time demonstrating the bone bioactivity of BG-ELAC threads. Additionally, BG incorporation into ELAC threads resulted in increased cell proliferation (p < 0.05) and deposition of a highly dense and continuous mineralized matrix. In conclusion, incorporation of BG into ELAC threads is a viable strategy for the development of an osteoconductive material for bone tissue engineering applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 2429-2440, 2017.