Development of Novel Nanostructured Tissue Engineering Scaffold Materials through Self-assembly for Bed-side Orthopedic Applications

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe objective of the current study was to utilize a natural self-assembled organic biomaterial (helical rosette nanotubes (HRNs)) to improve bone growth necessary for orthopedic implant applications. The DNA base pair building blocks of HRNs can self-assemble through 18 H-bonds to form a supermacrocycle in water which then stack to form a nanotube 3.5 nm in diameter and several μm in length. The nanometric features and ability to place diverse amino acid side chains on HRNs make them intriguing materials for orthopedic applications. In this study, HRNs are combined with a biocompatible hydrogel matrix in order to obtain more robust scaffolds. Bone cell experiments in vitro demonstrated that the novel HRNs with hydrogels could greatly enhance osteoblast (bone-forming cell) adhesion even at a very low concentration (close to 0.001mg/ml). Morphology of the HRNs with hydrogel scaffolds was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results showed that there were bundles of nanotubes in the HRNs with hydrogel scaffolds. Therefore, considering the good biocompatibility and nano bone-like structure of these scaffolds, the nanostructured hydrogel matrix with HRNs have the potential to serve as novel bone building agents for “on-the-site” orthopedic applications.