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The spinal surgeon community has expressed significant interest in applying calcium phosphate cement (CPC) for the treatment of vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) and minimizing its disadvantages, such as its water-induced collapsibility and poor mechanical properties, limiting its clinical use. In this work, novel biodegradable electrospun nanofibrous poly(d,l-lactic acid-ϵ-caprolactone) balloons (ENPBs) were prepared, and the separation, pressure, degradation, and new bone formation behaviors of the ENPBs when used as CPC-filled containers in vitro and in vivo were systematically analyzed and compared. CPC could be separated from surrounding bone tissues by ENPBs in vitro and in vivo. ENPB-CPCs (ENPBs serving as CPC-filled containers) exerted pressure on the surrounding bone microenvironment, which was enough to crush trabecular bone. Compared with the CPC implantation, ENPB-CPCs delayed the degradation of CPC (i.e., its water-induced collapsilibity). Finally, possible mechanisms behind the in vivo effects caused by ENPB-CPCs implanted into rabbit thighbones and pig vertebrae were proposed. This work suggests that ENPBs can be potentially applied as CPC-filled containers in vivo and provides an experimental basis for the clinical application of ENPBs for the treatment of VCFs. In addition, this work will be of benefit to the development of polymer-based medical implants in the future.

In this work, we studied the effects of incubation concentration and time on the self-assembly behaviors of regenerated silk fibroin (RSF). Our results showed the assembly ways of RSF were concentration-dependent and there were four self-assembly ways of RSF: (i) At relatively low concentration (≤0.015%), RSF molecules assembled into protofilaments (random coil), and then the thickness decreased and the secondary conformation changed to antiparallel β-sheet; (ii) at the concentration of 0.015%, RSF molecules assembled into protofilaments (random coil), and then assembled into protofibrils (antiparallel β-sheet). The protofibrils experienced the appearance and disappearance of phase periodic intervals in turn; (iii) at the concentration of 0.03%, RSF molecules assembled into bead-like oligomers (random coil), and then assembled into protofibrils (antiparallel β-sheet), and finally the height and phase periodic intervals of RSF protofibrils disappeared in turn; and (iv) at the relatively high concentration (≥0.15%), RSF molecules assembled into protofilaments (random coil), then aggregated into blurry cuboid-like micelles (random coil), and finally self-arranged to form smooth and clear cuboid-like micelles (antiparallel β-sheet). These results provide useful insights into the process by which the RSF molecules self-assemble into protofilaments, protofibrils and micelles. Furthermore, our work will be beneficial to basic understanding of the nanoscale structure formations in different silk-based biomaterials.

Silk fibroin (SF) is a promising candidate for a variety of application in the fields of tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomedical optics. Recent research has already begun to explore the construction of nano- and micropatterned SF films under ambient environment. The structure and biocompatibility of SF are dependent on SF state (solution or solid) and the method of drying the SF solution to prepare various biomaterials such as films, sponges, and fibers. Therefore, it is important to explore the construction of SF nano- and micropatterns under aqueous solution. This paper reports a novel application of atomic force microscopy (AFM) under liquid for direct deposition of the relatively hydrophobic protein SF onto hydrophilic mica. We demonstrate that the AFM tip, in either the contact or the tapping mode, can fabricate SF micropatterns on mica with controlled surface topography. We show that the deposition process requires a mechanical force-induced SF sol-gel transition followed by a transfer to the mica surface at the tip-surface contact, and the efficiency of this process depends on not only AFM operation mode but also the SF bulk concentration, the SF amount on mica, and the AFM tip spring constant.