In Vivo Bone Regeneration of Thai Silk Fibroin Scaffolds with Gelatin, Hydroxyapatite and Hyaluronic Acid

Abstract

Three-dimensional Thai silk fibroin-based scaffolds have been developed and reported in our previous study on their appropriate morphology, physical properties and, in particular, promising potential to promote the growth of bone cells in vitro. Moreover, our previous study found that they were non-toxic to cells in vivo. In this work, three types of Thai silk fibroin-based scaffolds, including conjugated gelatin/Thai silk fibroin scaffold (CGSF), hydroxyapatite/conjugated gelatin/Thai silk fibroin scaffold (CGSF4) and hyaluronic acid/Thai silk fibroin scaffold (HSF), were investigated for their in vivo osteogenic potential in rat model. Each Thai silk fibroin-based scaffold was implanted in the bone defect (6 mm) on the radius bone of Wistar rats for 12 weeks. Bone regeneration was analyzed by micro-CT and semi-quantitative data evaluated from histological slides, compared to the control group (no implanted scaffold). The micro-CT result showed that the most pronounced new bone was noticed in the implant case of CGSF4 scaffold. The result of histopathologically semi-quantitative analysis showed that all scaffolds could enhance new bone formation. As a result, the Thai silk fibroin scaffold modified with gelatin conjugation and hydroxyapatite deposition (CGSF4) possessed great potential for being employed as bone scaffold for bone tissue engineering application.