Mineralization of Bone Extracellular Matrix-like Scaffolds Fabricated as Silk Sericin-Functionalized Dense Collagen-Fibrin Hybrid Hydrogels

Gabriele Griffanti; Marc D McKee; Showan N Nazhat

doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics15041087

Mineralization of Bone Extracellular Matrix-like Scaffolds Fabricated as Silk Sericin-Functionalized Dense Collagen-Fibrin Hybrid Hydrogels

Pharmaceutics. 2023 Mar 28;15(4):1087. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15041087.

Authors

Gabriele Griffanti¹, Marc D McKee^{2

3}, Showan N Nazhat¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 0C5, Canada.
² Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 0C7, Canada.
³ Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, McGill University, Montréal, QC H3A 0C7, Canada.

Abstract

The design of hydrogels that combine both the biochemical cues needed to direct seeded cellular functions and mineralization to provide the structural and mechanical properties approaching those of mineralized native bone extracellular matrix (ECM) represents a significant challenge in bone tissue engineering. While fibrous hydrogels constituting of collagen or fibrin (and their hybrids) can be considered as scaffolds that mimic to some degree native bone ECM, their insufficient mechanical properties limit their application. In the present study, an automated gel aspiration-ejection (automated GAE) method was used to generate collagen-fibrin hybrid gel scaffolds with micro-architectures and mechanical properties approaching those of native bone ECM. Moreover, the functionalization of these hybrid scaffolds with negatively charged silk sericin accelerated their mineralization under acellular conditions in simulated body fluid and modulated the proliferation and osteoblastic differentiation of seeded MC3T3-E1 pre-osteoblastic cells. In the latter case, alkaline phosphatase activity measurements indicated that the hybrid gel scaffolds with seeded cells showed accelerated osteoblastic differentiation, which in turn led to increased matrix mineralization. In summary, the design of dense collagen-fibrin hybrid gels through an automated GAE process can provide a route to tailoring specific biochemical and mechanical properties to different types of bone ECM-like scaffolds, and can provide a model to better understand cell-matrix interactions in vitro for bioengineering purposes.

Keywords: biomineralization; bone bioengineering; dense collagen–fibrin; hydrogels; osteoblastic differentiation.

Grants and funding

Funding for this work was received from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Nature et Technologies du Québec, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canada Research Chairs Program, McGill University’s Faculty of Engineering Hatch Faculty Fellowship, and the McGill University MEDA scholarships program, who are all gratefully acknowledged.