One of the most promising strategies to improve the biological performance of bone grafts is the combination of different biomaterials. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the incorporation of marine spongin (SPG) into Hydroxyapatite (HA) for bone tissue engineering proposals. The hypothesis of the current study is that SPG into HA would improve the biocompatibility of material and would have a positive stimulus into bone formation. Thus, HA and HA/SPG materials were produced and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was performed to characterize the samples. Also, in order to evaluate the in vivo tissue response, samples were implanted into a tibial bone defect in rats. Histopathological, immunohistochemistry, and biomechanical analyses were performed after 2 and 6 weeks of implantation to investigate the effects of the material on bone repair. The histological analysis demonstrated that composite presented an accelerated material degradation and enhanced newly bone formation. Additionally, histomorphometry analysis showed higher values of %BV/TV and N.Ob/T.Ar for HA/SPG. Runx-2 immunolabeling was higher for the composite group and no difference was found for VEGF. Moreover, the biomechanical analysis demonstrated similar values for all groups. These results indicated the potential of SPG to be used as an additive to HA to improve the biological performance for bone regeneration applications. However, further long-term studies should be carried out to provide additional information regarding the material degradation and bone regeneration.

中文翻译：

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在大鼠胫骨缺损模型中评估海洋胶原蛋白和羟基磷灰石复合材料的体内生物效应。

改善骨移植物生物学性能的最有前途的策略之一是不同生物材料的组合。在这种情况下，本研究的目的是评估将海洋海绵蛋白（SPG）掺入羟基磷灰石（HA）中对骨组织工程建议的影响。当前研究的假设是SPG进入HA会改善材料的生物相容性，并且会对骨形成产生积极的刺激作用。因此，生产了HA和HA / SPG材料，并进行了扫描电子显微镜（SEM）分析以表征样品。另外，为了评估体内组织反应，将样品植入大鼠的胫骨缺损中。组织病理学，免疫组化，植入后2周和6周进行了生物力学分析，以研究该材料对骨修复的影响。组织学分析表明，复合材料呈现出加速的材料降解并增强了新的骨形成。此外，组织形态分析显示HA / SPG的％BV / TV和N.Ob / T.Ar较高。复合组的Runx-2免疫标记更高，而VEGF没有差异。此外，生物力学分析显示所有组的值相似。这些结果表明SPG可以用作HA的添加剂以改善骨再生应用的生物学性能。但是，应该进行进一步的长期研究，以提供有关材料降解和骨骼再生的更多信息。