3D chitosan/hydroxyapatite scaffolds containing mesoporous SiO2-HA particles: A new step to healing bone defects.

Biocompatible scaffolds with high mechanical strengths that contain biodegradable components could boost bone regeneration compared with nondegradable bone repair materials. In this study, porous chitosan (CS)/hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds containing mesoporous SiO ₂ -HA particles were fabricated through the freeze-drying process. According to field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) results, combining mesoporous SiO ₂ -HA particles in CS/HA scaffolds led to a uniform porous structure. It decreased pore sizes from 320 ± 1.1 μm to 145 ± 1.4 μm. Moreover, the compressive strength value of this scaffold was 25 ± 1.2 MPa. The in-vitro approaches exhibited good sarcoma osteogenic cell line (SAOS-2) adhesion, spreading, and proliferation, indicating that the scaffolds provided a suitable environment for cell cultivation. Also, in-vivo analyses in implanted defect sites of rats proved that the CS/HA/mesoporous SiO ₂ -HA scaffolds could promote bone regeneration via enhancing osteoconduction and meliorating the expression of osteogenesis gene to 19.31 (about 5-fold higher compared to the control group) by exposing them to the bone-like precursors. Further, this scaffold's new bone formation percentage was equal to 90 % after 21 days post-surgery. Therefore, incorporating mesoporous SiO ₂ -HA particles into CS/HA scaffolds can suggest a new future tissue engineering and regeneration strategy.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they do not have any competing financial interests or relationships that may have influenced their work.
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