Bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffolds in bone tissue engineering

Bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffold is emerging as a promising bone graft material to offer solutions for bone defect repair in bone tissue engineering. Numerous hydrogel composite scaffolds loaded with xenobiotic bone powder or alloplast bone powder have been developed for preclinical experiments. In vitro experiments conducted on osteogenesis-related cells and in vivo studies using bone defect animal models have demonstrated that bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffolds exhibit favorable physicochemical properties, enhance the osteogenic behavior of osteogenesis-related cells, and improve the quality and efficiency of bone defect repair in animals. Bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffold can maximize the performance of individual components. However, this material has several limitations and has not yet been approved for clinical trials. Therefore, recent research has explored related products with superior properties, enhancing the mechanical, chemical, and biological characteristics of bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffolds, and proposed various strategies for improvement. This review summarizes the preparation procedures, therapeutic applications and possible improvements of various types of bone powder-laden hydrogel scaffolds.