Bioactive Conjugated Polymer-Based Biodegradable 3D Bionic Scaffolds for Facilitating Bone Defect Repair.

Bone defect regeneration has been one of the great clinical challenges. Suitable bioactive composite scaffolds with high biocompatibility, robust new-bone formation capability and degradability are still required. In this work, we designed and synthesized an unprecedented bioactive conjugated polymer PT-C 3 -NH 2 , demonstrating low cytotoxicity, cell proliferation/migration-promoting effect, as well as inducing cell differentiation, namely regulating angiogenesis and osteogenesis to MC3T3-E1 cells. PT-C 3 -NH 2 was incorporated in to polylactic acid-glycolic acid (PLGA) scaffolds, which was decorated with caffeic acid (CA)-modified gelatin (Gel), aiming to improve the surface water-wettability of PLGA and also facilitated to the linkage of conjugated polymer through catechol chemistry, generating a 3D composite scaffold PLGA@GC-PT. This scaffold demonstrated excellent bionic structures with pore size of 50-300 μm and feasible biodegradation ability. Moreover, it also exhibited robust osteogenic effect to promote osteoblast proliferation and differentiation in vitro, thus enabling the rapid regeneration of bone defects in vivo. Overall, this study provides a new bioactive factor and feasible fabrication approach of biomimetic scaffold for bone regeneration. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.