Bone fractures and critical-sized bone defects present significant health threats for the elderly who have limited capacity for regeneration due to the presence of functionally compromised senescent cells. A wide range of synthetic materials has been developed to promote the regeneration of critical-sized bone defects, but it is largely unknown if a synthetic biomaterial (scaffold) can modulate cellular senescence and improve bone regeneration in aged scenarios. The current study investigates the interaction of Baghdadite (Ca3ZrSi2O9) ceramic scaffolds with senescent human primary osteoblast-like cells (HOBs) and its bone regeneration capacity in aged rats. A senescent HOB model was established by repeatedly passaging HOBs till passage 7 (P7). Compared to the clinically used hydroxyapatite/tricalcium phosphate (HA/TCP), Baghdadite prevented senescence induction in P7 HOBs and markedly negated the paracrine effect of P7 HOB secretomes that mediated the up-regulations of cellular senescence-associated gene expression levels in P2 HOBs. We further demonstrated that conditioned media extracted from Baghdadite corrected the dysfunctional mitochondria in P7 HOBs. In vivo, the bone regeneration capacity was enhanced when 3D printed Baghdadite scaffolds were implanted in a calvaria critical-sized bone defect model in both young and aged rats compared to HA/TCP scaffolds, but a better effect was observed in aged rats than in young rats. This study suggests that Baghdadite ceramic represents a novel and promising biomaterial approach to promote bone regeneration capacity in the elderly by providing an anti-senescent microenvironment.
Keywords: aging; biomaterial; bone regeneration; ceramics; senescence.