Effect of nano-biomaterials silk-collagen sponge scaffold on the tendon and ligament healing of patients with anterior cruciate ligament injuries

Abstract

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, the application of nanomaterials is more and more extensive, and the contact between humans, animals and plants and nanomaterials is inevitable. Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important intra-articular ligament of the knee joint, which plays a very significant role in the normal movement and functional stability of the knee joint. ACL is generally difficult to heal after injury and the main treatment method currently is use auto-graft or allograft and synthetic materials for ACL reconstruction, but there exist problems such as large demand but limited sources. Nanotechnology development provides new ideas and approaches for ACL reconstruction. This technology inoculates certain cells from autologous tissues into scaffold materials, and then implants the grown cell scaffold complex into defect or injury sites for completing the tissue or organ defect repair and functional reconstruction. On the basis of summarising and analysing previous research results, this paper selected silk and collagen sponges as experimental materials to prepare nano-biological scaffolds, then observed the surface structure of the prepared scaffolds under scanning electron microscope and conducted histological analysis and biomechanical testing, and finally applied this nano-silk-collagen sponge biomaterial scaffold (NNSCSBS) to the tendon ligament repair surgery of patients with ACL injury. The results showed that collagen fills fibrous spaces with relatively uniform distribution after NSCSBS hybridisation, and the NSCSBS cultured in vitro had more abundant skin fibroblasts growth; the NSCSBS had the porosity of (77.63 ± 1.82)%, the moisture of (78.24 ± 1.19)%, the maximum load of (122.48 ± 12.66) N, the stiffness of (26.07 ± 2.58) N/mm without statistically significant differences (P > 0.05); postoperative ACL's bone mineral density and collagen fibre composition both increased; the graft tendon was surrounded by new bone tissue, and the tendon and bone were connected by fibrous collagen with narrower interface gap and more mature new bone tissue. Therefore, the NSCSBS can provide mechanical support with silk scaffolds as the core, increase the scaffold's three-dimensional space with composite collagen as bio-component, promote more cell adhesion and improve biocompatibility of nano-biomaterial scaffold, and better repair ligament-osseous junction to form a bionic structure, having a good application prospect.