Application of injectable silk fibroin/graphene oxide hydrogel combined with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in bone tissue engineering

Abstract

The stem cell composite hydrogel scaffold was constructed following its application in bone tissue engineering. For this study, different silk fibroin (SF) hydrogels were prepared by enzyme-catalyzed crosslinking of SF and graphene oxide (GO), and their physicochemical properties and biocompatibility were examined. It has been observed that with the incorporation of GO, the pore size of the scaffold became more regular, and the porosity changed negligibly and also exhibited a stable silk II structure with excellent mechanical properties. Moreover, bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) were encapsulated in the hydrogel compared to SF hydrogels either in the absence or in the presence of high concentrations of GO. It has been noted that the cells in the compound gel at a low concentration of GO had shown a better growth capability, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. Therefore, such injectable BMSCs hydrogel is an excellent biomedical material, possessing potential applications in the field of bone tissue engineering.