Fabrication and Characterization of a Silk-HA Based Scaffold for Multi-compartmental B-L-B Graft

Abstract

Tissue engineering being a central forum for ground breaking scientific research and developments in biomedical applications caters to design and fabrication of new tissues by development of biodegradable substitutes for functional restoration & regeneration of impaired organs. The key to success in tissue engineering is customized and precisely optimized scaffolds specific to the tissue type. With the highest demand in musculoskeletal tissue engineering, it’s a challenge to construct a complex scaffold for incorporating interface organ to bridge ligament/tendon with bone to replace injured ligaments beyond repair. Such a scaffold must act as a template for tissue formation providing a 3D platform to the seeded cells in addition to providing enough mechanical strength required at soft to hard tissue interface to construct a Bone-Ligament-Bone graft. In the current project, a scaffold for bone compartment of a multi-compartmental B-L-B graft was fabricated by knitting silk fibroin as core material to impart mechanical strength. Hydroxyapatite (HA) being known for its osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties, was integrated on the surface of silk fibroins by electrospinning along with the biodegradable polymer, PCL(Poly caprolactone). The fabricated scaffold was characterized for mechanical properties like biodegradability, stiffness, porosity in addition to biocompatibility features like cell adhesion efficiency, cell proliferation after seeding fibroblasts. The nano-microscaffold showed the capability to support growth and proliferation of seeded fibroblast cells and an average yield stress of 38±0.18 kg/cm2. It was concluded that the fabricated scaffold can be effectively used for bone tissue engineering that needs further confirmation using bone cells.