Hydrogels such as type I collagen (COL) have been widely studied in bone tissue repair, whereas their weak mechanical strength has limited their clinical application. By adding graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, researchers have successfully improved the mechanical properties and biocompatibility of the hydrogels. However, for large bone defects, the osteoinductive and cell adhesion ability of the GO hybrid hydrogels need to be improved. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) secreted extracellular matrix (ECM), which is an intricate network, could provide a biomimetic microenvironment and functional molecules that enhance the cell proliferation and survival rate. To synergize the advantages of MSC-ECM with GO-COL hybrid implants, we developed a novel ECM scaffold construction method. First, an osteoinductive extracellular matrix (OiECM) was created by culturing osteodifferentiated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) for 21 days. Then, the GO-COL scaffold was fully wrapped with the OiECM to construct the OiECM-GO-COL composite for implantation. The morphology, physical properties, biocompatibility, and osteogenic performance of the OiECM-GO-COL implants were assessed in vitro and in vivo (5 mm rat cranial defect model). Both gene expression and cell level assessments suggested that the BMSCs cultured on OiECM-GO-COL implants had a higher proliferation rate and osteogenic ability compared to the COL or GO-COL groups. In vivo results showed that the OiECM-GO-COL implants achieved better repair effects in a rat critical cranial defect model, whereas bone formation in other groups was limited. This study provides a promising strategy, which greatly improves the osteogenic ability and biocompatibility of the GO hydrogels without the procedure of seeding and culturing MSCs on scaffolds in vitro, demonstrating its potential as an off-the-shelf method for bone tissue engineering.
Keywords: bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells; bone tissue engineering; extracellular matrix; graphene oxide; rat cranial defect.