Bicomponent fibrous scaffolds made through dual-source dual-power electrospinning: Dual delivery of rhBMP-2 and Ca-P nanoparticles and enhanced biological performances

Electrospun scaffolds incorporated with both calcium phosphates (Ca-P) and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) have been used for bone tissue regeneration. However, in most cases BMP-2 and Ca-P were simply mixed and loaded in a monolithic structure, risking low BMP-2 loading level, reduced BMP-2 biological activity, uncontrolled BMP-2 release and inhomogeneous Ca-P distribution. In this investigation, novel bicomponent scaffolds having evenly distributed rhBMP-2-containing fibers and Ca-P nanoparticle-containing fibers were made using an established dualsource dual-power electrospinning technique with the assistance of emulsion electrospinning and blend electrospinning. The release behavior of rhBMP-2 and Ca2+ ions could be separately tuned and the released rhBMP-2 retained a 68% level for biological activity. MC3T3-E1 cells showed high viability and normal morphology on scaffolds. Compared to monocomponent scaffolds, enhanced cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase activity, cell mineralization, and gene expression of osteogenic markers were achieved for bicomponent scaffolds due to the synergistic effect of rhBMP-2 and Ca-P nanoparticles. Bicomponent scaffolds with a double mass elicited further enhanced cell adhesion, spreading, proliferation, and osteogenic differentiation. (C) 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.