Enhanced osteogenesis and antibacterial activity of bioactive glass-coated, epsilon-poly-L-lysine-loaded,
Eddy Shan1,2, Liang Feng3, Elena Figuero4
1Shanghai key Laboratory of Stomatology, Department of Oral Implantology, Shanghai Perio-Implant Innovation Center, Shanghai Ninth People Hospital, College of Stomatology, National Center of Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. eddyshan@ucm.es.
Objective:
This study evaluated the structural properties and biological in vitro performance of 3D-printed polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds, coated with bioactive glass (BG) and functionalized with epsilon-poly-L-lysine (EPL) when co-cultured with rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
Material And Methods:
The physicochemical characterization included scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and degradation kinetics. The biological characterization assessed antibacterial activity using a disk diffusion assay, cell viability of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells with confocal laser scanning microscopy, cell proliferation and cytotoxicity with tetrazolium assay and relative gene and protein expression through reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot.
Results:
The physicochemical characterization showed a successful and homogeneous distribution of the ceramic component and confirmed EPL-loading. The PCL-BG-EPL scaffolds demonstrated antibacterial activity against Staphylocccus aureus for up to 7 days. Cell proliferation was significantly higher for PCL-BG and PCL-BG-EPL scaffolds, but cytotoxicity also increased in both groups when comparing day 3 and day 7. The osteogenic potential was enhanced for BG-coated scaffolds, with an upregulation of Alpl, Opn, and Col1a1 genes when compared to controls. However, no significant differences were detected for protein synthesis among the three groups.
Conclusions:
Composite scaffolds exhibited favorable technical properties and superior biological performance over pure PCL scaffolds.
