In native bone tissue regeneration, blood vessels, providing oxygen and nutrition for tissues, can promote the regeneration of bone and accelerate the repair of a defected area. In this study, Poly(D, L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) inverse opal scaffolds with high pore interconnectivity were fabricated and further modified with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The rat bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were co-cultured onto the scaffolds to enhance vascularization for bone tissue regeneration. Cell attachment, viability, proliferation, and morphology were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, live and dead staining and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Hydrostatic pressure with 0-279 KPa and 1 Hz one hour per day for 7 days was applied to tissue engineered bone constructs to investigate whether the loading stimulation can promote osteogenesis and angiogenesis mutually evaluated in parallel by multiple in vitro assays and in an in vivo chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. The results indicated that the immobilization of VEGF can improve biocompatibility of PLGA scaffolds and promote cell attachment and proliferation. The cell-scaffold constructs showed higher CD31 expression because of the angiogenic differentiation of rMSCs in hydrostatic loading culture condition in vitro. The in vivo CAM model experiment demonstrated that hydrostatic loading stimulated angiogenic differentiation of rMSCs can accelerate tubulogenesis. Furthermore, the new capillaries formed in cell-scaffold constructs were conducive to calcium deposition in vivo.
Keywords: CAM; Hydrostatic pressure; Mesenchymal stem cells; Osteogenesis and angiogenesis; PLGA inverse opal scaffolds.
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