Silk sericin‑hydroxyapatite nanoribbons toward structurally stable osteogenic scafolds

Abstract

Building a successful, cost-effective, and natural solution toward improving the bone-implant interface is an outstanding challenge. Silkworm sericin attracted the attention of bone researchers in the past decade due to its unexpected performance toward inherently promoting osteogenic differentiation of progenitor/stem cells. Hydroxyapatite is widely utilized in bone tissue regenerative scaffolds as the majority of bone matrix is constituted of inorganic material, primarily hydroxyapatite. Combining sericin and hydroxyapatite pledges improved mineralization performance in a bone regenerative scaffold which could increase the success of implanted bone biomaterial interfaces. Through electrospinning, we produced sericin and hydroxyapatite nanoribbons to present a high surface area and porous scaffold to culture osteoprogenitors and aimed to enhance cell adhesion and proliferation ultimately improving mineralization density. Material characterization is performed through field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. We showed that the addition of hydroxyapatite into sericin nanoribbons significantly enhanced cell proliferation and cytoskeletal organization in vitro and detected an overall improvement in mineral density. We propose that sericin nanoribbons reinforced with hydroxyapatite are suitable platforms for further bone regenerative interface applications.