Issue 23, 2020

Bone apatite anisotropic structure control via designing fibrous scaffolds

Abstract

Bone tissue has an anisotropic structure, associated with the collagen fibrils' orientation and the c-axis direction of the bone apatite crystal. The bone regeneration process comprises two main phases: bone mineral density restoration (bone quantity), and subsequent recovery of bone apatite c-axis orientation (bone quality). Bone quality is the determinant factor for mechanical properties of bone. Control of osteoblast alignment is one of the strategies for reconstructing bone quality since the collagen/apatite matrix orientation in calcified tissues is dependent on the osteoblast orientation. In this work, fibrous scaffolds designed for reconstruction of bone quality via cell alignment control was investigated. The fibrous scaffolds were fabricated using the electrospinning method with poly(lactic acid) at various fiber collecting speeds. The degree of fiber alignment in the prepared fibrous scaffolds increased with increasing fiber collecting speed, indicating that the fibers were oriented in a single direction. The alignment of osteoblasts on the fibrous scaffolds as well as the subsequent apatite c-axis orientation increased with increasing fiber collecting speed. We successfully controlled cell alignment and apatite c-axis orientation using the designed morphology of fibrous scaffolds. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that adjusting the degree of fiber orientation for fibrous scaffolds can manipulate the regeneration of bone quality.

Graphical abstract: Bone apatite anisotropic structure control via designing fibrous scaffolds

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Feb 2020
Accepted
19 Mar 2020
First published
02 Apr 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 13500-13506

Bone apatite anisotropic structure control via designing fibrous scaffolds

S. Lee, F. Nagata, K. Kato and T. Nakano, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 13500 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA01295E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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