A novel integrated biphasic silk fibroin scaffold for intervertebral disc tissue engineering

The intervertebral disc (IVD) tissue engineering construct provides a promising approach for the treatment of symptomatic degenerative disc diseases. In this study, a novel 3D silk fibroin biphasic scaffold for integrated IVD tissue engineering was fabricated by sequentially using the paraffin sphere leaching method for annulus fibrosus (AF) phase and the phase separation method for nucleus pulposus (NP) phase. Both phases were perfectly integrated and possessed a highly interconnected porous structure with pore size of 220 +/- 23.1 pm for AF and 90 +/- 17.8 pm for NP phase. Furthermore, the scaffolds were found to have a high porosity of 91% arid 93% for AF and NP phases, respectively. In addition, this silk biphasic scaffold had a relative high compressive modulus under wet conditions (150.7 +/- 6.8 kPa). Rabbit AF and NP cells could attach, grow and further penetrate into the scaffold and distribute uniformly. This silk fibroin biphasic IVD scaffold emerges as a potential candidate for IVD tissue engineering. (C).) 2013 Elsevier BM. All rights reserved