E7 peptide-functionalized Ti6Al4V alloy for BMSC enrichment in bone tissue engineering

Ti6Al4V alloy is widely used for hip joint prostheses, however owing to its lack of biomimetic surface properties, it often suffers from poor osseointegration. It is well known that bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) play an important role in the osseointegration of the host bone and joint prostheses. One promising approach to improving the osseointegration of joint prostheses is to enrich the number of BMSCs at the periprosthetic site. Previous studies have reported that BMSC specific affinity peptide E7, can specifically enrich BMSCs. However, to date, few studies have reported the use of E7 in bone tissue engineering. In this study, we conjugated E7 peptide to Ti6Al4V alloy to fabricate a scaffold (BTS) to improve the biocompatibility of the alloy. E7 peptide efficiently improved the adhesion of BMSCs to Ti6Al4V alloy. In addition, the BTS scaffold was more conducive to osteogenesis than the RGD-functionalized and non-functionalized control scaffolds. The functional BTS scaffold could pave the way for designing functional joint prostheses, which promote osseointegration between the host bone and implant.